The Brundtland Commission

A few years later, the World Commission on Environment and Development, better known as the Brundtland Commission, further highlighted the concept of sustainable development in a report(2) that will undoubtedly be seen as the trigger in the international community’s collective focus on increased protection of the environment and natural resources. Although many countries supported the idea of sustainable development and were formulating policies for its implementation, the tendency was to pay little attention to the conservation of species and their habitats. The Brundtland Report, however, like the World Conservation Strategy in 1980, established that the protection of species and ecosytems is indispensable to the achievement of sustainable development.

In the years following the publication of the Brundtland report, the United Nations Organization held an important conference (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on the environment and development; the leaders of 105 countries took part. In addition to the development of Agenda 21 and the adoption of the Framework Convention for Climatic Change, the Earth Summit gave top priority in its discussions to the conservation of biodiversity and adopted the international Convention on Biological Diversity. One year after the Rio Summit, 168 countries had signed the Convention, and 114 countries, Canada being the first, have since ratified it. Under the Convention, countries made a commitment to protect threatened species and habitats. Article 8k states that signatory countries shall "develop or maintain necessary legislation and/or other regulatory provisions for the protection of threatened species and populations."(3)

Canada has for a long time been concerned with the protection of its natural and historic heritage. As an example, 100 years ago it had laid the groundwork for a national system of parks and natural sites. These protected lands have ensured the conservation of the country’s most beautiful landscapes for past, present, and future generations. Like a number of other statutes – the Fisheries Act, the Migratory Birds Convention Act, the Canadian Wildlife Act, the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act – the National Parks Act also protects certain species that are at risk and their habitats. All these statutes play an important role with regard to the conservation of natural ecosystems and the wildlife they support, but their existence has not stopped the disappearance of species once found in Canada. The commitment Canada made in 1992, after the Rio Summit, was therefore justified and should make possible the action necessary to ensure more effective protection of species and ecosystems now at risk.

This paper first gives a general picture of the protection of species at risk in Canada and in other countries, primarily through an overview of the general concept of biodiversity and its importance internationally and in Canada. This is followed by an examination of the consequences of the loss of biodiversity in this country. We will then present the different approaches and actions taken in Canada, both federally and provincially, to ensure the conservation and recovery of species at risk. Also examined is the experience acquired in this regard in certain countries, particularly the United States, which, since 1973, has had a specific statute for the protection

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