Gekkoninae

Announcing the Establishment of the Technical Support Unit for the IPBES Task Force on Scenarios and Models of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in IGES

Retrieved on: 
Friday, March 8, 2024

On Friday 1 March 2024, the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), in cooperation with the Ministry of the Environment, Japan, established the Technical Support Unit (TSU) for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Task Force on Scenarios and Models of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

Key Points: 
  • On Friday 1 March 2024, the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), in cooperation with the Ministry of the Environment, Japan, established the Technical Support Unit (TSU) for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Task Force on Scenarios and Models of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.
  • The TSU will be located in IGES Tokyo Sustainability Forum (TSF).
  • The IPBES Task Force on Scenarios and Models of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is a group of experts established to provide advice and support on scenarios and modelling for various IPBES assessment processes, including the implementation of a programme on scenarios that predict possible future situations for biodiversity and the models used to develop them.
  • IGES expects the task force to provide the scientific information needed to assess progress in implementing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the global biodiversity target for 2030.

Endangered by the 49th Parallel: How political boundaries inhibit effective conservation

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Some Canadian scientists advocate for conservation efforts to focus on species unique to this country, while others argue for a more global focus.

Key Points: 
  • Some Canadian scientists advocate for conservation efforts to focus on species unique to this country, while others argue for a more global focus.
  • However, most ignore the fact that the U.S. – Canada border creates endangered species.
  • We must consider the global context when designing Canadian endangered species, and biodiversity, protections.

Time for a chat about Chats

  • Take the Yellow-breasted Chat, a charismatic warbler listed as Endangered under the (Canadian) federal Species at Risk Act (SARA).
  • The Canadian fragment of the Southern Mountain subspecies survives in a handful of sites in B.C.
  • According to the International Union for Conservation (IUCN) Red List, though, the global population is around 17 million across North America.


The federal Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) says the Southern Mountain subspecies “occurs at the northern edge of its range in Canada” as a peripheral to the huge American core population. In other words, the Yellow-breasted Chat is listed as endangered in Canada because, in 1846, the British accepted that the border with the U.S. should lie at the 49th parallel.

Endangered, or not?

  • The question then is, should conservation efforts be dedicated to tiny Canadian populations of otherwise healthy species?
  • Elder Richard Armstrong’s traditional story illuminates why the Chat, which his people call xʷaʔɬqʷiləm’ (whaa-th-quil lem), matters to the transboundary Nsyilxcən speaking Peoples.
  • The First Nation’s special care for the Chat, in turn, makes it more likely that COSEWIC’s listing will help.
  • Fourteen of those were, like the chat, ‘Least Concern’ globally, while just one bat species, Myotis lucifugus, was universally assessed as endangered.
  • Another study scored 729 COSEWIC-listed species, subspecies and populations to assess the global context of these conservation measures.

Overcoming jurisdictional rarity

  • I live in one of the skinny fragments of shrub steppe that snake up from the Columbia plateau in the U.S. through Osoyoos to Kamloops — an area which seems purpose-built for jurisdictional rarity.
  • Take the burrowing owl, a ground-nesting raptor with a vexed facial expression.
  • Meanwhile, the IUCN’s range map for the burrowing owl (Least Concern), stretches from Alberta to Argentina.
  • Public information about endangered species dodges jurisdictional rarity, leaving decisions to scientists and bureaucrats.

Reframing the conversation

  • Scientists may feel protective towards Canadian populations they know and love, but citizens won’t want limited resources wasted on conservation of un-endangered species.
  • Scientific and political processes gummed up with peripheral species make it less likely that critically imperilled species will be saved.
  • Where good reasons exist to protect peripheral species, those arguments should be public and open to debate.
  • is considering, should require that peripheral species be identified transparently, using agreed definitions, as ‘endangered in B.C.’, or ‘threatened in Canada’.


Greg Garrard's research is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, grant no. 435-2020-1220. Sarah Raymond's research visit to UBC Okanagan was funded by UKRI-MITACS Globalink.

Canadian Kraft Paper Industries Limited fined $1 million for unlawful deposit of effluent into the Saskatchewan River

Retrieved on: 
Monday, December 18, 2023

The charges stemmed from a February 2019 pipe leak at Canadian Kraft Paper Industries Limited's pulp and paper mill in The Pas, Manitoba.

Key Points: 
  • The charges stemmed from a February 2019 pipe leak at Canadian Kraft Paper Industries Limited's pulp and paper mill in The Pas, Manitoba.
  • The leak resulted in the release of 23,000 litres of black liquor, a by-product of the manufacturing process, into Canadian Kraft Paper Industries Limited's mill effluent treatment system.
  • Through a subsequent investigation, they determined that over the course of six days, close to 181 million litres of acutely lethal effluent had been released from the effluent treatment system into the Saskatchewan River.
  • Subsection 6(5) of the Pulp and Paper Effluent Regulations does not allow the deposit of effluent when the effluent is acutely lethal to fish.

Hope and peril for Killer Whales and other Canadian species

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Killer Whales are top predators, found in all the world's oceans.

Key Points: 
  • Killer Whales are top predators, found in all the world's oceans.
  • Southern Resident Killer Whales on the Pacific coast mostly eat Chinook Salmon.
  • Much less is known about Killer Whales in the Eastern Arctic and off the Atlantic coast.
  • Back on the West Coast, perched above the Pacific Killer Whales' home live two wildflowers, Hibberson's Trillium and Macoun's Meadowfoam.

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada to deliberate on the conservation status of 31 species in Ottawa

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, November 23, 2023

OTTAWA, ON, Nov. 23, 2023 /CNW/ - The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) meets twice a year to review the status of wildlife species identified as potentially being at risk of extinction in Canada.

Key Points: 
  • OTTAWA, ON, Nov. 23, 2023 /CNW/ - The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) meets twice a year to review the status of wildlife species identified as potentially being at risk of extinction in Canada.
  • COSEWIC will determine the status of 31 Canadian wildlife species, among them several populations of iconic Killer Whale, the prehistoric looking Snapping Turtle, and two populations of tiny stickleback fish that have been severely impacted by aquatic invasive species.
  • The next meeting will take place from November 26 to December 1, 2023, on the traditional and unceded territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin People in Ottawa, Ontario.
  • Following the meeting, a press release will be issued that summarizes the results of the discussions, highlighting ongoing Canadian conservation challenges and successful conservation actions.

Peace River Hydro Partners ordered to pay $1.1 million for deposit of contaminated drainage water into the Peace River

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, August 1, 2023

The charge stemmed from an investigation by Environment and Climate Change Canada enforcement officers into the discharge of 3,300 m3 of contaminated drainage water into the Peace River on September 9 and 10, 2018.

Key Points: 
  • The charge stemmed from an investigation by Environment and Climate Change Canada enforcement officers into the discharge of 3,300 m3 of contaminated drainage water into the Peace River on September 9 and 10, 2018.
  • The contaminated drainage water had a low pH (acidic) and a high concentration of metals.
  • As a result of this conviction, Peace River Hydro Partners will be added to the Environmental Offenders Registry.
  • The Peace River is "water frequented by fish", as defined under the Fisheries Act.

Seeing conservation solutions for unseen species

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, May 10, 2023

COSEWIC, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, met last week to consider the status of 16 wildlife species.

Key Points: 
  • COSEWIC, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, met last week to consider the status of 16 wildlife species.
  • These included several that go unseen – those that are active in the night or that live underground or in hard-to-reach places.
  • Assessing secretive species underscores the importance of looking a little closer and learning all that we can to help them survive.
  • Several of the assessed species are not just hard to see but have actually gone unseen for decades.