Biodiversity

Biodiversity

• UN Global Environmental Outlook 2019:
• "Unsustainable human activities globally have degraded the Earth’s ecosystems, endangering the ecological foundations of society. Urgent action at an unprecedented scale is necessary to arrest and reverse this situation"

Canada: Biodiversity

• 1970-2014: 50% monitored species declined by, on average, 83%
• Driven by habitat loss
• Canada: 20% global wilderness = responsibility?

Ontario: Biodiversity

Biodiversity Committments

• Convention on Biological Diversity
• Aichi Targets: 17% terrestrial and inland water protected by 2020
• Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)

Why Protect Biodiversity?

Regulating Biodiversity

• Protected areas
• Species protection
• Natural resources laws
• Wildlife laws

Jurisdiction

• Ownership
• Legislative
• Historical context: abundance, progress, transformation, order

Provincial

• s 109 & NRTAs
• s 92(5)
• s 92(13)
• s 92(16)

Federal

• Ownership Migratory Birds CITES Inter jurisdictional wildlife
• Ownership
• Migratory Birds
• Fisheries
• CITES
• Interjurisdictional wildlife

Shared Jurisdiction & Cooperation

• Cooperation as rule (National Accord, 1992)
• Canada-Ontario Agreement on SAR
• SARA:Federal "safety net" and emergency powers
• ss 34, 35 (extending ss 32, 33) & s 61 (extending s 58)
• s 80 emergency declaration (Group Maison Candiac

Indigenous

• Indigenous law
• Treaties
• s 35
• Justified infringement (Sparrow)
• Comanagement (Nunavut Wildlife Management Board)
• Indigenous Protected Areas

Biodiversity: Protected Areas

Protected Areas

• Levels of protection
• Purpose?
• National Parks Act ss 4, 8
• Ontario Provincial Parks and Conservation Areas Act ss 1-3

National Parks Act

• Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society v Canada (Minister of Heritage) (2003) (FCA)
• Ecological integrity: priority or factor to balance?

Indigenous Law and Protected Areas

• Bruce Penninsula alvars
• Bruce Penninsula National Park

Ontario Parks

• Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act (2006)
• Prohibitions ss 16, 22

How do we choose what we protect?

Untitled Slide

Biodiversity: Species Protection

How do we protect species at risk?

Purposes

SARA: Listing

• Extirpated
• Endangered
• Threatened
• Special Concern
• Risk Category = level of protection
• COSEWIC report, political decision

ON Endangered Species Act: Listing

• COSSARO (science & TK)
• Formerly no ministerial discretion (but reconsideration)
• Bill 108 amendments

Bill 108, 2019

• Ministerial discretion on listing
• Reporting changes
• Reconsideration
• COSSARO Membership
• Scale of Assessment

SARA Prohibitions

ESA Prohibitions

Ontario: Endangered Species Act 2007

• Widely praised as strongest in Canada
• But, exemptions and permit by rule

Ontario: Endangered Species Act

• No permit ever denied!O Reg 242/08: permit-by-rule
• Overall benefit
• O Reg 242/08: permit-by-rule

Ontario: Endangered Species Act

• Wildlands League v Ontario 2016 (ONCA)
• Review of regulations
• Protection or facilitation?

Bill 108, 2019

• Conservation fee - "pay-to-kill"
• s 18 overall benefit removed
• Compare old and new ss 17 & 18

SARA in Court

• Georgia Strait Alliance v Canada FCA (2012): Habitat protection
• Tsleil-Waututh Nation v Canada FCA(2018): critical habitat in EA processes
• Western Canada Wilderness Committee v Canada (2014)
• Adam v Canada (2014)

Recovery

• SARA Recovery process: 1.recovery strategies (s 41)
• Habitat designation and protection (s 57, 58
• 2.Action plan
• ESA: s 11 (but s 12.1, 12.2)
• Mandatory habitat protection removed from s 56 regulation power

Emergency Powers

• Le Groupe Maison Candiac Inc v Canada (2018) FC
• Emergency Declaration s80 for Western Chorus Frog