WCS Advocates for the Protection

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) of Canada leads initiatives that protect wildlife. The nongovernmental organization's scientific research and policy outreach projects focus on regions throughout Canada, including Ontario’s far northern boreal forests.

Combining field research with its conservation vision, WCS has protected at-risk areas such as Yukon’s Peel Watershed. In 2019, five Canadian government entities, including the Yukon First Nations, signed the Peel Watershed Regional Land Use Plan after 15 years of negotiations that reached the Supreme Court of Canada.

The plan sets guidelines for the use of 16 percent of Northern Yukon’s ecologically sensitive land. According to the plan, 3 percent of the protected lands will be managed with specific recommendations that protect the endemic boreal caribou habitat.

Additionally, WCS collaborates with indigenous communities to implement conservation strategies in large intact wild areas. For example, WCS works with the indigenous Anishnaabeg and the Ininiw communities who inhabit Ontario’s far northern boreal forests.

The boreal forests are among the few remaining forests that are untouched by industrial resource development. However, the area is known for its Ring of Fire - a mineral-rich region that attracts potential ore extraction projects. Such projects require extensive construction of roads and transmission lines through wild regions that contain lakes, wetlands, and other valuable ecosystems.

WCS aims to protect the integrity of the boreal forests by developing community-based monitoring programs and regional strategic assessments. WCS partners with indigenous communities to co-develop research and monitoring studies. These partnerships integrate local community members in studies that show how climate change impacts animal populations such as wolverines, ovenbirds, and fish.

The combined effect of climate change-induced wildfires and industrial development threaten the balanced ecosystem. Industrial activities that entail dam construction, for example, eliminate waterways that serve as habitats for various fish species. Similarly, increasingly frequent wildfires destroy the habitats of wolverines and ovenbirds.

WCS establishes assessments to guide industrial development. The assessments examine the ecological and social effects of roads alongside the pre-existing climate change factors. In 2020, the Canadian federal government approved strategic assessments of the WCS to evaluate the area’s environmental riches before it begins new development projects.

Dr. Justina Ray, president of WCS Canada, discussed policy reform that prioritizes sustainable development in the Ring of Fire. In 2018, Dr. Ray pointed out that existing environmental legislation fails to consider the importance of Canada’s environmental value. For instance, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act of 2012 (CEAA) overlooks the significance of assessments that cover the cumulative effects of past and new industrial development.

The latest version of the CEAA serves as a compass for the federal assessments of industrial projects. In August 2021, Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, rejected the Grassy Mountain Coal Project after verifying its deleterious environmental effects. Using the CEAA guidelines, Wilkinson concluded that the project would negatively affect environmental elements such as surface water quality and at-risk species such as the westslope cutthroat trout. Additionally, the project would worsen cumulative effects on the heritage of the indigenous Kainai, Piikani, and Siksika First Nations.