Scientists for Species

New for Fall 2010:

BC has no species are risk legislation, but a BC Species at Risk Task Force was convened in 2010 to report on the issue. They submitted their report to the Provincial government in early 2011. We responded to the call in the fall of 2010 with the following:
1. An open letter to Premier Campbell calling for strong endangered species legislation in BC plus press release (Sept. 28, 2010)
2. An Op-Ed in the Vancouver Sun on the issue (Nov. 3)
3. An open letter from UBC biologists (Nov. 15) to the task force
4. An open letter from SFU biologists (Nov. 15) to the task force.
The task force report was released to the public in summer, 2011). Critically, the task force does NOT recommend new stand-alone species at risk legislation. One could comment on the report till the end of August, 2011.

This site was originally created to organize and promote lobbying from the scientific community for improvements to Canada's Species at Risk Act. Many of these changes were implemented in the final version of the Bill and we would like to thank those who contributed. Background information on this effort as well as the original letters to the Prime Minister can be found by clicking through to the "Letter Campaign" page in the banner.

The Canadian Institute of Ecology and Evolution, aligned with the Canadian Society of Ecology and Evolution ran a workshop on Scientific aspects of SARA in November 2008. We created SCOSAR (the Scientific Committee on Species At Risk in Canada), to offer more scientific input to the implementation of the Act. One can find out more, including a transcript of our Parliamentary testimony, here.

In addition, this site offers a general, plain-language, overview of Canada's Species at Risk Act ("SARA", which came into force on June 1, 2004) and an archive of SARA-related media articles. This archive is accessable here, and through "Quick Links" in the Letter Campaign section.

To paraphrase sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson ¹, there are two categories of environmental problems in the modern world. The first is the damage done to the physical environment: toxic pollution, damage to the ozone layer, the depletion of arable land and aquifers. These trends are, with enough will power and effort, likely reversible. The second category is the loss of biodiversity through population and species extinctions. This is irreparable damage. Even if the physical environment is brought back to optimal conditions for human welfare we cannot call back species which have been lost.

Every species on this planet has a genetic history stretching back to the origins of life on earth. Their genetic make-up is the result of more than 3,500 million years² of evolution (primarily by natural selection). One could imagine each species' genetic heritage as a book, present in only a certain number of copies: if we lose the copies, we've lost the book, and all of its fascinating and potentially useful information, permanently.

In this way, species loss through habitat destruction, over-harvesting and pollution can be considered to be equivalent to the burning of the library at Alexandria: we cannot expect what is lost to ever rewrite itself.

Finally, imagine that all future books could only be written through the modification books already in existence. While this is an imaginary condition to place on literature, it is an entirely factual constraint on future biodiversity, as new species arise from current species. As a result, loss of diversity today means loss of potential in the future.

Additional reasons to preserve biodiversity

Cited

1. Wilson, E.O. 1992. The Diversity of Life. Belknap Press: Cambridge, Mass.

2. Nisbet, E.G., N.H. Sleep. 2001. The habitat and nature of early life. Nature 409 (1083-1091).