About the report

This independent case study, written by biologist Jared Hobbs, commissioned by Wilderness Committee and Sierra Club BC found that logging is the biggest contributing factor for the decline of southern mountain caribou and spotted owls in British Columbia. In the case of spotted owls, logging is pervasive across the habitat, extreme in the severity of harm and has an extremely high overall risk ranking, according to the report.

The case study assesses wildlife decline in B.C. and the legal gaps responsible in three geographic regions of B.C. (coastal, southern and northern areas), for six different species; caribou (southern mountain and boreal), spotted owls, western rattlesnake, great basin gopher snake, great basin spadefoot, and tiger salamander, representing diverse threats causing their decline.

The study uses eleven threat categories developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to assess whether or not these threats are addressed in provincial law. Findings show that multiple IUCN threats are not being considered through provincial or federal legal measures. They also highlight that the federal Species-at-risk Act (SARA) does not have automatic legal authority on provincial crown land, which makes up 94 per cent of the landbase, and that no provincial legislation is designed specifically to protect critical habitat.

The report highlights the need for the federal, provincial, and municipal governments to seek Indigenous co-creation and management of species recovery plans. These plans must include funding and decision-making authority for the Indigenous communities working to protect species at risk and biodiversity.