Abstract
The Government of Ontario has legal responsibilities to protect and recover the province’s population of forest-dwelling woodland caribou, which is classified as a threatened species. Loss and fragmentation of habitat caused by commercial timber harvesting, land clearing, and linear disturbances such as road building have resulted in range recession. Ontario’s Woodland Caribou Conservation Plan (2009) serves as the provincial government’s response to a recovery strategy. This paper contends that the likelihood of success for this conservation plan is low as it focuses on mitigating rather than eliminating threats, relies on the unproven and circumspect hypothesis that woodland caribou will re-occupy logged habitat, and lacks clarity and details on implementation. Sound government action focused on protection and recovery is needed to prevent the imperilment and extirpation of this species at risk.
Highlights
In October 2009, the Ministry of Natural Resources (2009) (MNR) released its finalized Ontario’s Woodland Caribou Conservation Plan
The forest-dwelling boreal population of woodland caribou is classified as a “threatened species” under the province’s Endangered Species Act, 2007
It is estimated that 20 000 woodland caribou remain in Ontario, of which approximately one quarter inhabit the boreal forest and are described as the “forest-dwelling” population (Ontario Woodland Caribou Recovery Team, 2006:18)
Summary
In October 2009, the Ministry of Natural Resources (2009) (MNR) released its finalized Ontario’s Woodland Caribou Conservation Plan. Improve Planning The conservation plan does not provide any hard commitments or timelines to permanently set-aside and protect the habitat of the forest-dwelling population of woodland caribou (see Schaefer & Mahoney, 2003; Vors, 2006).
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