Rate of logging increased in B.C. caribou ranges while Canada stalls on 2014 commitment to map critical habitat

VANCOUVER/UNCEDED xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (MUSQUEAM), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (SQUAMISH) AND səlilwətaɬ (TSLEIL-WAUTUTH) TERRITORIES — 
 

Environmental organizations are demanding that Canada act with urgency to protect endangered caribou herds in British Columbia from regional extinction, starting with mapping their critical habitat – a step that is more than 10 years overdue. Ecojustice lawyers, on behalf of Wildsight, Wilderness Committee and Stand.earth, sent a letter today to Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) Steven Guilbeault calling on the federal government to comply with its legal obligations to protect endangered mountain caribou herds.

Southern Mountain Caribou are divided into three groups, including the Southern Group, which has been in sharp decline for decades. ECCC promised to complete the identification of Southern Mountain Caribou critical habitat by the end of 2014. As of January 2025, Canada is now more than a decade past its deadline.

Having an accurate critical habitat map is one of the key pieces needed to recover declining caribou herds. The organizations highlight that the B.C. government completed critical habitat maps in 2020 and these maps could be easily adopted into the amended federal recovery strategy.

“Decades of science have shown that caribou need vast swaths of intact and old forest to survive,” said Wildsight’s Eddie Petryshen. “The federal government has committed to recovering caribou, but so far all we’ve seen is a decade-long plan to make a plan while caribou are disappearing and their habitat is being decimated.”

Without federal action under the Species at Risk Act (SARA), rates of provincially-approved logging actually increased in critical caribou habitat after 2014. GIS analysis from Wilderness Committee shows that there was a total of 310,120 hectares (3,101 sq. km) of logging in B.C.-mapped critical habitat between 2007 and 2023. 51,313 hectares (513 sq. km) of that logging is in highly-sensitive core habitat. A recent investigation by Wildsight and Wilderness Committee showed the province has also permitted logging in “no harvest” ungulate winter ranges.

“A decade of delays has meant a decade of habitat destruction — destruction that has already wiped out several local herds,” said Lucero Gonzalez, conservation and policy campaigner for the Wilderness Committee. “What we are demanding from Canada is not a favour; it is their legal duty under the Species at Risk Act. And right now, they are failing. Caribou cannot survive on promises and missed deadlines, they need intact forests, and they need them now.”

In 2020, the federal government noted that Southern Mountain Caribou had declined 53% over six years. The Southern Group and its habitat have been hit hardest, with eight of 18 herds extirpated largely within the last two decades. In their letter, the groups state: “ECCC’s ongoing delays and inaction amount to a tacit endorsement of the extermination of a species.”

“Canada’s inaction has been absolutely catastrophic for caribou and the communities where they are so vital,” said Tegan Hansen, senior forest campaigner at Stand.earth. “As caribou continue to die out, it’s practically impossible to interpret this government’s failure as anything other than signing off on extinction.” 

Over the last decade, ECCC has set a string of internal deadlines for completing identification of the species’ critical habitat and has met none of them. Carrying on with this trend, ECCC is already hedging on meeting its current 2026 timeline for posting a proposed updated recovery strategy.

“This is a new low in the federal government’s poor record of protecting and recovering Canada’s endangered wildlife,” said Ecojustice lawyer Sean Nixon. “Successive environment ministers have unlawfully delayed for more than a decade in taking urgently needed steps under the Species at Risk Act to map and protect mountain caribou habitat.”

Ecojustice, Wildsight, Wilderness Committee and Stand.earth are calling on Environment and Climate Change Canada to complete the identification of critical habitat for the Southern Group, and begin protecting that caribou habitat from further destruction as soon as possible. The group has given ECCC a deadline of March 19, 2025 to publish a proposed amended recovery strategy that fully identifies the Southern Group’s critical habitat.

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Images and maps are available for media use here.

Media contacts:

Lucero Gonzalez | Conservation and Policy Campaigner
604-700-3280, lucero@wildernesscommittee.org (Pacific Time)

Eddie Petryshen | Conservation Specialist, Wildsight  
250-427-9885, eddie@wildsight.ca (Mountain Time)

Tegan Hansen  | Senior Forest Campaigner, Stand.earth (English, French)
250-354-3302, tegan@stand.earth (Pacific Time)

Venetia Jones | communications manager, Ecojustice
613 903 5898 ex. 714, vjones@ecojustice.ca (Eastern Time)