Where Has Canada’s Wildlife Gone?
2017/2018 • Issue 2What in the World? • Level 2- 1 -
Canada’s wildlife is disappearing at a disturbing rate, according to the Living Planet Report Canada.
This comprehensive study, released September 14 by World Wildlife Fund Canada, looked at 903 vertebrates across the country: 386 kinds of birds, 365 fish species, 106 different mammals, and 46 reptiles and amphibians. The study found that population levels for half of these species declined by an average of 83 percent between 1970 and 2014.
“The sheer magnitude is very sobering,” says David Miller, CEO ofWWF Canada, the country’s largestinternational conservationorganization.
Human Footprints and HabitatLoss
What is at the root of the problem? There are many factors, including pollution, invasive species, overfishing, and climate change. But the biggest contributor is habitat loss.
Oscar Venter, author of a study on disappearing wilderness, says that undisturbed forests are critical to wildlife survival. But farming, forestry, industrial and urban development, mining, and dam construction are all consuming or destroying wildlife habitat. In fact, between 2000 and 2013, an estimated 216,000 square kilometres of forests were disturbed or fragmented by human activity. That’s an area four times the size of Nova Scotia.
Meanwhile, the forests, lakes, wetlands, and coastal areas in our national parks are no longer a safe haven, either. A January report by Parks Canada states that only half of the ecosystems in national parks across the country are in good condition. The rest are ranked fair topoor.
Banff, for example, has listed its forests, freshwater, and tundra in only fair condition. The Alberta park receives four million visitors a year, a human footprint that can’t help but impact the integrity of its ecosystems.
The Trouble With SARA
Another finding of the Living Planet Report? Canada’s Species at Risk Act (SARA) doesn’t effectively protect endangered species.
The Act was passed in 2002 to identify and protect wildlife at risk of extinction. Yet the report found that the 87 species in the study protected under SARA declined by 63 percent over the research period.
Lack of political will partly explains SARA’s failure to protect our at‑risk species. In many cases, the government takes a long time to decide whether to accept a scientific recommendation to list a species. Then, there are often further long delays between listing it and takingaction.
For example, the woodland caribou, which ranges across much of Northern and Eastern Canada, was listed as threatened in 2003, but its “recovery strategy” wasn’t released until 2012. During this time, development activities continued to damage key woodland caribou habitat, and the population continued to plummet. And actual action plans to help the woodland caribou recover aren’t due from the provinces and territories until the end of 2017.
“In the last decade, the Species at Risk Act was ineffectual,” says Sarah Otto, a biology professor at UBC. “Until the new [federal Liberal] government, there had really only been nine species of the hundreds we know to be at risk who had gone through the whole process to be protected.”
University of Victoria marine biologist Julia Baum agrees. “It’s like the house is on fire, you call the fire department, and they sit there for ten years twiddling their thumbs and debating whether or not they should put the fireout.”
A Question Of Jurisdiction
There’s another problem. Even when the federal government designates a species as endangered, it doesn’t have jurisdiction over the habitats in which the animals live.
“The vast majority of activities that pose threats – agriculture, mining, forestry, hydroelectric dams – all of these things are under provincial jurisdiction,” says C. Scott Findlay, a biology professor at the University of Ottawa who has studied SARA.
Though the provinces and territories have species at risk laws that correspond to SARA, they aren’t as stringent. SARA does have clauses that can compel compliance, but the federal government has yet to usethem.
“Just because you have a piece of legislation doesn’t mean that you’re going to have action on the ground and in the water and that’s what ultimately matters,” Mr. Findlay says.
How Can We Stop It?
So what can be done to turn the situation around? The WWF’s report made three main recommendations. First, we need to do more research on how wildlife is being impacted by and is responding to climate change so we can take appropriate action. Second, all levels of government need to collaborate to protect, restore and expand wildlife habitat. And finally, SARA needs to be retooled to cover not just wildlife, but the habitat it needs to survive.
Otherwise, warns Ms. Otto, the future will be grim. “We are going to lose species. We are going to lose ecosystems. We’re going to lose precious natural spaces. And if we don’t act we’re going to lose a lotmore.”
2017/2018 • Issue 2What in the World? • Level 2- 1 -
Did You Know?
The World Wildlife Fund’s Canadian study is the first since 2007. It took two years and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
How The Species at Risk Act Works
There are currently more than 700 species on SARA’s list. Each has been assigned a status reflecting the population’s degree of risk:
• Special Concern: may become threatened or endangered
• Threatened: likely to become endangered if nothing is done
• Endangered: facing extirpation or extinction
• Extirpated: no longer found in the wild
• Extinct: a species that no longer exists
The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada is made up of wildlife experts and scientists. It makes recommendations which the government assesses before any species is added to the list. Once a species is designated as being at risk, the government is obliged to prepare an action plan to protect and recover the species and its habitats.
2017/2018 • Issue 2What in the World? • Level 2- 1 -
compliance: the practice of obeying a law, rule, or request
comprehensive: complete; including all or nearly all elements or aspects of something
ecosystem: a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment
habitat: the natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism
ineffectual: lacking in power or forcefulness; producing no result or effect
integrity: the quality of being in a good condition, without any damage
invasive species: any species that has been introduced to an environment where it is not native, and that has since become a nuisance through rapid spread and increase in numbers, often to the detriment of native species
jurisdiction: the power or right to govern an area
legislation: a law, or set of laws
magnitude: great size, importance, or effect
safe haven: a place of refuge or security
stringent: having a very severe effect, or being very limiting
vertebrate: an animal with a backbone, for example a mammal, bird, or fish
2017/2018 • Issue 2What in the World? • Level 2- 1 -
On The Lines
Answer the following in complete sentences:
1. Which conservation organization released an important study in mid-September? What was the name of the report?
2. What did this study look at and what did it conclude?
3. What did the report find was the largest contributing reason for this decline?
4. Describe the general condition of Canada’s national parks.
5. Explain what SARA is and how it is supposed to work.
6. What did the recent report conclude about the SARA process? Explain why this is happening.
7. What other problem has the federal government encountered in protecting at-risk species?
8. Explain the three main recommendations of the WWF report.
Between The Lines
An inference is a conclusion drawn from evidence. A plausible inference is supported by evidence in the article and is consistent with known facts outside of the article.
What inference(s) can you draw from the fact that governments are taking so long to prepare their action plans?
Beyond The Lines
While about half of the species tracked by the Living Planet Report Canada declined by an average of 83 percent between 1970 and 2104, our nation is actually doing much better than the global average. If we count all 903 species WWF Canada studied, there was an eight percent total decrease over the 44 years studied. Globally, the decline is closer to 50 percent. Read “Earth Has Lost Half of its Wildlife in the Past Forty Years” at . Conduct more research into the issue. How do the causes, consequences, and potential solutions differ globally, as compared to the Canadian story you just read?
Just Talk About It
1. The Living Planet Report Canada was the first study of its kind since 2007. It took two years to complete and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. As you see it, is this time and money well-spent? Why or why not?
2. What if...all of Canada’s wildlife disappeared?
3. a) What is your understanding of the reasons why many of Canada’s wildlife populations are declining?
b) Brainstorm a list of steps that you could take to help support Canada’s wildlife. Then, choose the one that is most do-able and would have the most impact – and follow through on it.
On Line
Note: The links below are listed at for easy access.
1. Read the full report at
2. Watch a one minute video that introduces the report at
3. Watch CBC’s coverage of the report from The National at
4. Watch a three-minute BBC News clip about WWF’s global Living Planet Index and the findings of a 50-percent wildlife decline over the last 40 years at
5. Follow daily WWF updates on Twitter at @WWFCanada
6. Go deep and read the Species at Risk Act at
The Desperate Plight of the Rohingya
2017/2018 • Issue 2What in the World? • Level 2- 1 -
The United Nations (UN) calls the Rohingya of Myanmar the world’s most persecuted people – and recent events seem to support thisdescription.
Since late August, the Rohingya have been running for their lives, trying to escape government security forces who are burning their villages and shooting their people. At least 400 Rohingya have died in the violence, while more than 400,000 have streamed out of Myanmar on foot. According to the government, nearly 200 Rohingya villages – about 30 percent of the total in the Southeast Asian nation – have been emptied by “clearance operations.”
“The situation seems a textbook example of ethnic cleansing,” said the top human rights official at the UN.
Most of the refugees have fled to Bangladesh. Others have taken to dangerous seas in hopes of reaching Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. However, these neighbouring countries have been reluctant to take the Rohingya in, fearing that they won’t be able to cope with the influx. Bangladesh, for instance, already hosts 750,000 Rohingya refugees, many of whom left Myanmar before this current crisis began.
Who Are The Rohingya?
Most Rohingya are Muslims living in largely Buddhist Myanmar. Before this latest exodus, about 1.1 million Rohingya made up about one-third of the population of Rakhine State on Myanmar’s northwest coast.
Scholars say the Rohingya have lived in Myanmar since at least the 12th century when their Indian, Chinese, and Arab ancestors migrated to the region. Many were also encouraged to move there from surrounding countries by the British after that nation took control of the region early in the 19th century.
A Stateless People
The Rohingya believe they have a right to live in Myanmar in peace, yet the government refuses to recognize them as one of the country’s 135 ethnic groups. It considers them to be foreign, illegal migrants of Bengali origin. So, it restricts their ability to study, work, travel, marry, practice their religion, and access healthservices.
The Rohingya are also banned from voting, and were stripped of Myanmar citizenship in 1982. That means that they can’t get passports – and that they are the largest stateless group in the world.
A History Of Persecution
Discrimination against the Rohingya has gone on since at least since 1948 when Myanmar – then known as Burma – gained independence from Britain. Why? Partly because they’re different. The Rohingya’s culture, language, and religion set them apart from the majority of the population. Lack of money and underdevelopment play a role, too. According to the World Bank, more than 78 percent of households in Rakhine State live below the poverty line. The majority population resents competing for scarce resources with this minority.
Tensions Escalate
Over the decades, the discrimination has worsened, and since the 1970s, vigilantes and Myanmar government security forces have frequently attacked the Rohingya.
In 2012, after ethnic riots killed hundreds of Rohingya and forced more than 140,000 others into squalid camps, some Rohingya decided to fight back. They formed the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) and trained as militants.
On August 25, ARSA attacked police posts, killing 12 officers. It was the second attack in a year by this resistance group, and it sparked the current fierce response from security forces and civilian mobs.
Aung San Suu Kyi
In the midst of this violence, the world has been looking to Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi to speak up for theRohingya.
Ms. Suu Kyi, who came to power in November 2015, spent most of her time from 1989 to 2010 under house arrest for trying to bring democracy to Myanmar, which was then ruled by the military.
She faced down soldiers pointing guns directly at her – and her efforts paid off in 2012 when the military allowed, for the first time, mostly‑free elections. She was even given honorary Canadian citizenship and awarded the Nobel Prize for peace because judges said she represented “an outstanding example of the power of the powerless.”
Yet Ms. Suu Kyi has refused to side with the Rohingya. Instead, she claims her government is defending all the people of Rakhine, and that she is the victim of “fake news”. Security forces are not targeting civilians, her government says, but rather a group of terrorists that claim to protect the Rohingya but are actually militants wanting to create an Islamic state.
“We know very well, more than most, what it means to be deprived of human rights and democratic protection,” her government said in a statement, adding that many photographs that seem to show the suffering of the Rohingya are “simply the tip of a huge iceberg of misinformation calculated to create a lot of problems... with the aim of promoting... terrorists.”
Stinging Criticism
Analysts agree that it would be politically difficult for Ms. Suu Kyi to denounce the crackdown on the Rohingya because her civilian government has no authority over the powerful military. Still, countries around the world spoke out strongly against her refusal to support theRohingya.
For his part, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for the government to “end the military operations, allow unhindered humanitarian access and recognize the right of refugees to return in safety and dignity.”
“[Myanmar] must also address the grievances of the Rohingya, whose status has been left unresolved for far too long,” he said.
2017/2018 • Issue 2What in the World? • Level 2- 1 -
Myanmar
The Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar, also known as Burma, has a population of nearly 53 million people. It is bordered by Bangladesh, Thailand, India, Laos, and China, and is about the size of Alberta.
Previously an independent kingdom, Myanmar was annexed by the British Empire in 1886. Japan invaded and occupied the country during World War II, but it was returned to British control until independence in 1948.
The military ran the country between 1962 and 2011. During this time, the generals in control inflicted human rights abuses and turned the international community against them. However, in recent years they have gradually let go of some power, making it possible for Aung San Suu Kyi to rule.
2017/2018 • Issue 2What in the World? • Level 2- 1 -
annex: to take control of a country or region by force
Bengali: a major ethnic and linguistic group in South Asia
Buddhist: of or relating to a religion of eastern and central Asia growing out of the teaching of Siddhārtha Gautama that suffering is inherent in life and that one can be liberated from it by cultivating wisdom, virtue, and concentration
ethnic cleansing: the mass expulsion or killing of members of an unwanted ethnic or religious group in a society.
influx: a large number of people or things coming to a particular place
migrant: someone who travels to a different place or country in order to live there
Muslim: someone who follows or practices Islam, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion. Muslims consider the Quran, their holy book, to be the word of God as revealed to the Islamic prophet and messenger Muhammad.
persecute: to subject (someone) to hostility and ill-treatment, especially because of race or political or religious beliefs