The Trudeau government intends to protect the monarch butterfly. While federal scientists assess that this species is downright endangered, Ottawa wants to use the Species at Risk Act to ensure better protection of habitats deemed essential to ensure its survival, particularly in Quebec, learned The duty.
As Montreal prepares to host the UN conference on biodiversity (COP15), the federal government has just published in the Canada Gazette a “notice of intent” announcing a 45-day public consultation that should lead to the classification of the monarch butterfly as an “endangered” species under the Species at Risk Act (SARA).
This means that the Liberals are ready to follow the recommendation of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), which in 2016 classified the monarch butterfly as “endangered”, the most severe status of SARA before that of an “extirpated” species in the country.
Protect habitat
According to information obtained by The duty According to sources familiar with the matter, the federal government intends to use the listing of the species under SARA to better protect monarch habitat. The status that will be granted to it will indeed involve the development of a recovery plan and the designation of “critical habitat” to ensure its survival in the country.
Several habitats could be designated in Quebec, including possibly the “Champ des Monarques”, land belonging to Aéroports de Montréal and located near the Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau airport. The organization Technoparc Oiseaux has also been campaigning for several years for the protection of the sector, which was the subject of cuts last summer. These cuts, carried out by Aéroports de Montréal, mowed down many milkweed plants.
A government source also pointed out that the government intends to better protect important natural environments for species at risk and that the preservation of the monarch is part of this desire. In an interview with The Canadian Press, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault recently warned municipalities and provinces that there will be no more tolerance for the destruction of habitats harboring endangered species.
For the director general of the Society for Nature and Parks of Quebec, Alain Branchaud, the protection of the monarch butterfly is a good decision. However, he invites the federal government to clearly identify the important habitats for this insect, but also to collaborate with the American and Mexican authorities in order to ensure the survival of the species.
International cooperation
The butterfly’s complex life cycle means conservation efforts must involve Canada, the United States and Mexico. Adults that overwinter in Mexico breed the following spring and the females then lay eggs on a specific plant species, milkweed. Monarchs then migrate north to arrive in Quebec in June, where they breed. Several generations of monarchs can follow one another before the butterflies reach our regions in June.
The insect therefore faces multiple threats, including the impacts of climate change and the loss of suitable habitats. Monarch caterpillars are particularly vulnerable to habitat destruction, since they feed on a single species of plant, milkweed.
Monarch populations have plummeted in recent years in North America. The eastern population (which migrates to Quebec in particular) has gone from 384 million butterflies in 1996 to around 60 million today. This is an 85% drop. The situation of the so-called “Western” population is even worse. It has gone from 1.2 million butterflies in 1997 to less than 30,000 today.