Letter To Premier John Horgan From 17 Scientists

Re: Legislation and action to protect biodiversity in British Columbia
Cc: MLA George Heyman

James Mack, Assistant Deputy Minister, Environment and Climate Change Strategy
Alec Dale, Executive Director, Ecosystems Branch, Environment and Climate Change Strategy
Dear Premier John Horgan, November 16, 2020

As scientists and experts on biodiversity issues across British Columbia, we write to urge your
government 1) to create long overdue provincial endangered species legislation and 2) to invest
in the protection and recovery efforts needed to reverse biodiversity loss across the province.
We request that you direct the next Environment Minister to protect species at risk in BC, both
legally and through effective action, completing the unfulfilled mandate of 2017.
British Columbians share this province with over 50,000 species of plants and animals,1 some
of which are found nowhere else on earth. From the arid grasslands of the Okanagan to the lush
rainforests of coastal Vancouver Island, biodiverse ecosystems underpin our cultures, health and
wellbeing. As summarized by John Doyle, Auditor General of
British Columbia, “Biodiversity is crucial for the functioning of
ecosystems, and provides the natural products and services
that support life – from oxygen, food, fresh water and fertile
soils to medicines and storm and flood protection.”2
Biological diversity also serves as a treasure trove of new
pharmaceuticals, agricultural varieties, and adaptive
potential in the face of climate change.
Yet unsustainable land use and development are causing
BC’s wildlife populations to decrease in abundance, with
many species approaching extinction3. With every species
lost from BC, with every unique natural habitat that becomes Figure: Most federally listed species at risk,
degraded or destroyed, we lose a bit of BC’s natural capital for including hundreds in British Columbia, have
not improved since listing.3
present and future generations.
We write from lands that are unceded territories of First Nations across the province.
Reconciliation includes protecting the species and ecosystems with which Indigenous peoples
have deep relationships extending across millennia. Ancestral rights to these ongoing
relationships are inherent and enshrined in laws and treaties. By continuing activities that lead
to species loss, settler societies and governments are violating these rights. In 2019, your
previous government enshrined in law the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples4. These rights include access to species for food, social, and ceremonial
purposes, rights that must not be extinguished (R. v. Sparrow, [1990] 1 S.C.R. 1075). Not
protecting biodiversity in the province is antithetical to the BC Government’s commitments to
reconciliation5.
The current legal safety net for species at risk has holes too big to protect species that are
imperiled in British Columbia. While the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA) provides some
protection, it is limited primarily to federal lands, leaving the majority of species across 99% of
the province unprotected. Of the 1336 species at risk recognized by the province6, only four are
legally protected under the Wildlife Act (burrowing owl, American white pelican, Vancouver Island
marmot and sea otter).7 Other provisions of the BC Wildlife Act, including the prohibition against
the direct killing of endangered species, have not been enforced. As one example, over 19,000
cubic metres of the endangered whitebark pine have been harvested in BC without penalty.8
Provincial leadership is sorely needed. With every passing year, it becomes more and more
difficult to reverse species declines. After decades of logging irreplaceable old growth forests,
spotted owls are nearly extirpated from Canada, with deforestation continuing in areas where
the last known individuals remain.9 Herd after herd of caribou have been lost while their critical
habitat has been destroyed. Many plants, such as Bear’s-foot Sanicle in Vancouver Island’s Garry
Oak ecosystems, are perilously close to being gone forever. Some, like Victoria’s Owl-clover, are
found only in and near Victoria and nowhere else in the world. These species, along with more
than a thousand others, need to be protected by provincial legislation.
Reversing declines is possible, as evidenced by the over 125% increase in numbers in the
Klinse-za caribou herd10. We thank your government for signing the historic Partnership
Agreement with Indigenous and federal partners, which we applaud as a bright spot for
biodiversity. Many cost-effective measures to protect species at risk are available to the
provincial government, especially if we act early.11
In 2002 and then again in 2010, Canada committed to the United Nations’ Convention on
Biological Diversity to achieve “a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at
the global, regional, and national level as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit
of all life on Earth”.12 Despite some progress, the latest report “paints a stark message – that we
are continuing to lose biodiversity, our essential planetary safety net. We are not on track to
meet most of Aichi Biodiversity Targets, and we know that the loss of nature poses grave
consequences for us all.”13
A new more ambitious post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework is under negotiation, and
Canada has committed to goals of protecting 25% of lands and waters by 2025 and 30% by 2030.
BC has the opportunity to play a global leadership role in protecting some of the most majestic
wildlife and wilderness remaining on the planet14, sustaining residents and building a strong
nature-based tourism economy for the future. BC has long recognized the need to protect wildlife
species (e.g., the 1996 national Accord for the Protection of Species at Risk, the 2017 mandate to
Environment Minister Heyman). It is time to match this recognition with legal protection and
effective species protection.
We call upon the Government of British Columbia to develop binding, effective legislation
that will protect species at risk and their critical habitats in the province. We call upon the
government to position BC as a national and international leader by protecting the amazing and
iconic wildlife of this province, reversing species declines and identifying and taking actions that
restore degraded ecosystems and their inhabitants.
We request a meeting with the new Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy
and their staff at their earliest convenience to discuss how the government can successfully
safeguard the endangered species and ecosystems of British Columbia. To assist in this effort, we
attach a peer-reviewed research paper and a technical report that many of us co-wrote to advise
on key aspects of a provincial endangered species a law3. Given our collective experience and
expertise in the legal, social, economic, and ecological aspects of endangered species protection,
conservation, and recovery, we would be pleased to serve the province in achieving lasting
biodiversity protection.
SINCERELY, ‡
Prof. Sarah Otto, Department of Zoology & Director, Liber Ero Program, UBC Vancouver
Assoc. Prof. David R. Boyd, Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability and School
for Public Policy and Global Affairs, UBC Vancouver
Asst. Prof. Cole Burton, Dept. Forest Resources Management, Canada Research Chair in
Terrestrial Mammal Conservation, UBC Vancouver
Prof. Kai Chan, Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, UBC Vancouver
Prof. Chris Darimont, Department of Geography, Raincoast Chair of Applied Conservation
Science, University of Victoria
Prof. Chris Johnson, Ecosystem Science and Management Program, University of Northern
British Columbia
Prof. Emeritus Ken Lertzman, School of Resource and Environmental Management, Simon
Fraser University
Prof. Sumeet Gulati, Food and Resource Economics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
Prof. Karen E. Hodges, Department of Biology, UBC Okanagan
Aerin Jacob, PhD, Conservation scientist, Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative
Prof. Tara Martin, Department of Forest and Conservation Science, Liber Ero Conservation
Chair, UBC Vancouver
Prof. Arne Mooers, Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University
Prof. John Reynolds, Tom Buell BC Leadership Chair in Salmon Conservation, Simon Fraser
University
Prof. Dolph Schluter, Canada Research Chair in Evolution and Ecology, Department of Zoology,
UBC Vancouver
Prof. Brian Starzomski, Ian McTaggart Cowan Professor and Director, School of Environmental
Studies, University of Victoria
Asst. Prof. Alana Westwood, School for Resource and Environmental Studies, Dalhousie
University
Assoc. Prof. Jeannette Whitton, Department of Botany, UBC Vancouver
‡
Signatures reflect individual endorsement, not institutional.
Address for correspondence: Sarah Otto, [email protected] (http://scientists-4-species.org)
REFERENCES
1
Austin et al. (2008) Taking Nature’s Pulse: The Status of Biodiversity in British Columbia. Victoria, BC.
Biodiversity BC.
2
John Doyle, Auditor General of British Columbia (February 2013)
https://www.bcauditor.com/sites/default/files/publications/2013/report_10/report/OAGBC-
Audit%20of%20Biodiversity%20in%20B.C%20assessing%20the%20effectiveness%20of%20key%20tool
s.pdf
3
Westwood et al. (2019) Protecting biodiversity in British Columbia: Recommendations for developing
species at risk legislation. FACETS 4:136-160; Westwood et al. (2018) Protecting biodiversity in British
Columbia: Recommendations for an endangered species law in B.C. from a species at risk expert panel.
Report prepared for the B.C. Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy. Available at
www.scientists-4-species.org
4
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/indigenous-people/new-
relationship#:~:text=As%20part%20of%20its%20work,and%20Reconciliation%20Commission%20of%2
0Canada's
5
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/natural-resource-stewardship/consulting-with-
first-nations/first-nations-negotiations/reconciliation-other-agreements
6
https://www.bclaws.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/13_168_90
7
Red-listed (extirpated, endangered, or threatened) and blue-listed (special concern) by the B.C.
Conservation Data Centre; an additional 1000 species in the database satisfy the criteria for red- or
blue-listing but are not listed. BC Species and Ecosystems Explorer. B.C. Minist. of Environ. Victoria,
B.C. Available at: https://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eswp (accessed Nov 12, 2020).
8
https://thenarwhal.ca/b-c-allows-logging-mining-companies-to-cut-down-thousands-of-endangered-
trees Pinus albicaulis is federally listed as endangered under SARA and blue-listed provincially.
9
https://thenarwhal.ca/canadas-last-breeding-endangered-spotted-owls-in-bc-valley-logging
10
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/environment/plants-animals-and-ecosystems/wildlife-wildlife-
habitat/moose/moosecaribou_two-pager.pdf
11
Martin et al. (2018) Prioritizing recovery funding to maximize conservation of endangered species.
Conservation Letters 11:e12604–9.
12
UNEP, Report on the sixth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological
Diversity (UNEP/CBD/COP/20/Part 2) Strategic Plan Decision VI/26 in CBD (UNEP, Nairobi, 2002).
13
Statement by Achim Steiner, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),
“Nature: Humanity at a Crossroads, UN Warns”, Press release associated with “The 5th Global
Biodiversity Outlook”. 15 September 2020. https://www.cbd.int/doc/press/2020/pr-2020-09-15-gbo5-
en.pdf
14
Coristine et al. (2019). National contributions to global ecosystem values. Conservation Biology
33:1219-1223; Watson et al. (2018). Protect the last of the wild. Nature 563:27-30.

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Re: Legislation and action to protect biodiversity in British Columbia

Cc: MLA George Heyman

Dear Premier John Horgan, November 16, 2020

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