Species at Risk Act

Canada's Species at Risk Act: Implementation at a Snail's Pace
Report Released April 2009

Action Planning

BANFF SPRINGS SNAIL Photo © Mark and Leslie Degner www.markandlesliedegner.com

Action plans are where decisions are made about the most cost-effective means for achieving recovery of a species, based on the recovery strategy. Unfortunately, as the Act is written, there is no legal deadline for the completion of action plans. Although recovery strategies must identify a timeline for action planning, these timelines are not legally binding and most are not met. Thirteen action plans are past the timelines promised in the corresponding recovery strategies.

The development of an action plan is especially important in those cases where the recovery strategy did not identify any critical habitat. However, of the 78 species for which final recovery strategies failed to identify critical habitat, none has a completed action plan. To date, in fact, there is only one completed action plan: for the Banff Springs snail, a species located entirely within a National Park.

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• Listing
• Recovery Strategies
• Habitat Protection
• Safety Net
• Conclusion