After 10 years of debate, Canada has become the last
country in North America to pass an endangered species law. The
Species at Risk Act (SARA) passed Parliament in December, and goes
into effect later in 2003.
Unlike the U.S. Endangered
Species Act, SARA protects only “federal species,” such
as fish, migratory birds, and plants and animals living on federal
land or in the oceans. While the new law will protect 233 species
and their federal habitat, provincial governments still have
authority over all other species.
“We have a
‘made-in-Canada’ approach to cooperate with landowners
and provinces,” says Ruth Wherry, director of the Species at
Risk Office of the Canadian Wildlife Service.
Conservation
groups are skeptical. Kate Smallwood, with the Vancouver-based
Sierra Legal Defense Fund, points out that British Columbia is only
1 percent federal land, and has no provincial endangered species
law. “Unless a spotted owl flies into a post office, Coast
Guard station, military base, airport, national park or other
federal land, it is out of luck,” she says.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Canada lays down the law on endangered species.
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