EDMONTON – Monday April 30th, 2018 saw the release of the first report identifying where caribou critical habitat remains unprotected on non-federal lands, a requirement for the federal Minster of Environment and Climate Change under Canada’s Species at Risk Act.

The findings, while short and lacking details, are unsurprising. While critical habitat was identified more than 5 years ago, Alberta, along with other Canadian provinces and territories are failing to protect critical habitat for boreal caribou. “This report is an important step in protecting caribou in Alberta. It increases transparency of process and makes it clear that steps taken to date to protect caribou habitat are insufficient to recover this species at risk. If we don’t change how we manage and use our land, we will see the loss of Alberta’s caribou in our lifetime.” says Tara Russell, Program Director at CPAWS Northern Alberta.

This is the first report of its kind, for any species listed under the Species At Risk Act, despite it being requirement that these reports be produced every 180 days that identified critical habitat of species at risk goes unprotected. The published report examines the critical habitat protection for boreal woodland caribou, a species designated as threatened since 2002.

The report does highlight some promising steps that Alberta could build on however, including “the identification and protection of conservation areas in caribou ranges”. CPAWS Northern Alberta encourages Alberta to act on this, and designate the previously identified conservation areas as protected areas.  These areas are ideal candidates for protection. They have no forestry activity, and minimal overlap with oil and gas, as well there is the potential of financial support from the federal government to create protected areas.”