(Montreal) The Advisory Committee on Threatened or Vulnerable Wildlife Species in Quebec will resume its work after five years of inactivity, Quebec Environment Minister Benoit Charette announced this weekend.
The group studies animals that are already on the list of species likely to be designated as threatened or vulnerable and recommends that the government grant them this status.
“The last meeting dates back to 2017,” said Mr. Charette in a telephone interview. The last time species were added was in 2009, under the Liberal government of Jean Charest.
Three new members have been added to fill the vacant seats on the committee: professor of terrestrial ecology at the University of Sherbrooke Fanie Pelletier, researcher in animal ecology Joanie Van de Walle and researcher at the Laurentian Forestry Center Christian Hébert.
This is a promise Minister Charette made in December, a few days before COP15 was held in Montreal. He had also announced that 27 species would soon be added to the list, which is still in progress.
The president of the organization Nature Québec, Louise Gratton, described the committee’s return as “excellent news”. ” It was time ! “, she exclaimed in a telephone interview, recalling that only 38 animals have the status of vulnerable or threatened species.
Threatened species, whose disappearance is feared, include fish such as the copper redhorse, birds such as the piping plover and mammals such as mountain caribou and beluga whales. Among the vulnerable species, whose survival is considered precarious, but whose disappearance is not feared in the short term, we count among others the polar bear, the western chorus frog and the golden eagle.
Mme Gratton said he hopes “it will go pretty smoothly,” as 115 species await their turn to be assessed.
“We are going to let the committee members work, but we can expect this list to be updated in the coming months,” indicated Minister Charette.
Concrete actions
When a species is declared threatened or vulnerable, its habitat is documented and considered when projects are approved for that location.
“Often, these are mitigation measures, support measures to ensure that the species can be partially or if not completely protected,” explained Minister Charette. It makes government programs or even financial support available in some cases. He also cited awareness and education efforts about the species involved.
Butme Gratton thinks the responsibility to protect species should be more concretely spelled out in law. “Designating species is one thing, but after that, you have to be able to put in place measures to protect them. The law allows us to do this, but we see that on occasion the government hesitates to protect certain species. »
Thus, Nature Québec is asking that we modify the Threatened and Vulnerable Species Actthere Wildlife Conservation and Development Act and the Regulation respecting wildlife habitats “so that the minister responsible not only has the power to apply them, but that he or she also has the obligation to exercise the responsibilities that these laws confer on him or her “.