Bald Eagle

Wildlife Habitat

BC Nature gave input to a draft report: Together for Wildlife, a Pathway Forward for Wildlife and Habitat in British Columbia. 

In our detailed response, we requested a clear political commitment to urgent and meaningful action to ensure that the proposed “Pathway” is effective in maintaining and enhancing biodiversity. We indicated BC Nature support for the intent of the proposed strategy but noted that it presents no meaningful change to the status quo that has resulted in harm to the health of our environment. The government must commit to actions that address the deep and profound impacts that our past and current economic practices and systems are having on wildlife and their habitats, and local communities.

Following are some of the points of input from BC Nature:

  • Incorporate intrinsic rights for wildlife and ecosystems.
  • Place more emphasis on the importance of wildlife and habitat to local peoples.
  • Create a vision of a holistic wildlife and habitat management policy that targets sustainability. We suggested that the strategy should extend the principle of respect: profound respect for the land itself and its inhabitants including people.
  • Use science and scientific experts as the foundation of wildlife decisions.
  • Develop activity packages to augment K-12 curricula on the stewardship theme.
  • Forge partnerships with stakeholders such as community groups, other levels of government, non-governmental organizations, and academics.
  • Draft a mandate for immediate action to regulate and eliminate well known human-caused impacts to wildlife and their habitats.
  • Produce a “state of the environment” document to serve as a baseline upon which change can be measured.
  • Make a clear commitment to greater enforcement of laws, and accountability of those responsible for impacts to wildlife and habitat in BC.
  • Make greater efforts to employ habitat restoration as a tool for re-establishing species diversity and resilience.
  • Give clearer attention to the potential effects of climate change.
  • Define the term “wildlife” so that people think of all animals, not only game species.

 

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