In Canada, a species is classified as at risk when it faces the possibility of disappearing entirely from the country or the planet if no action is taken to improve its situation. The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) is responsible for evaluating the status of species thought to be at risk. Established in 1977, COSEWIC consists of representatives from federal, provincial, and territorial wildlife management agencies, experts from the scientific community, and specialists in community and Aboriginal traditional knowledge. COSEWIC members review reports on the status of potentially at-risk wildlife species and categorize these species into one of five categories:
Extinct — A wildlife species that no longer exists.
Extirpated — A wildlife species no longer existing in the wild in Canada, but occurring elsewhere.
Endangered — A wildlife species facing imminent extirpation or extinction.
Threatened — A wildlife species likely to become endangered if limiting factors are not reversed.
Special concern — A wildlife species that may become a threatened or an endangered species because of a combination of biological characteristics and identified threats.
Under the Species at Risk Act (SARA), the Government of Canada takes the designations made by this committee of experts into consideration when establishing the List of Wildlife Species at Risk.
There are 33 terrestrial Species at Risk in the Wolastoq / Saint John River.
According to the 2019 Global Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, about 1 million plant and animal species (the highest number in human history) are threatened to go extinct. Humans have significantly altered the ecosystems we rely on through development, over-production and over-extraction of natural resources and the resulting pollution and pressures that come with it. Biodiversity is suffering and our survival is threatened as a result. When one species goes extinct it causes a cascading effect throughout the ecosystem, as that species is connected to the wider web through its eating, sleeping, mating, migratory, and other behaviours. But the good news is, biodiversity is resilient; when pressures on it are eased and it has time to rebound and adapt, it will. The more we start to see ourselves as ‘part’ of these ecosystems, the more we can work with nature to thrive.
To learn more about Species at Risk in Canada please visit the Species at Risk sub-topic page.
Working together to conserve Species at Risk in the Wolastoq / Saint John River Priority Place