Manitoba's Caribou Strategy Will Fail to Save Threatened Species

Protecting large habitat areas required for survival

The Manitoba government has the right goals to recover its threatened boreal woodland caribou, but its current strategy will not achieve the recovery of the species. The province needs to take immediate action to identify critical habitats and protect large areas of boreal forest.

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Overcoming the shortcomings of the current strategy will require that the Manitoba government:

Act in the short term to create new protected areas in woodland caribou range, including the First Nations land protection requests on the east side of lake Winnipeg.
Identify (describe and map) the critical habitat of woodland caribou in Manitoba.
Address the principal causes of loss of woodland caribou habitat in Manitoba: logging, mining, hydroelectric development.
Live up to its commitment in the Woodland Caribou Conservation Strategy for Manitoba (2000) that "Habitat considered critical for the continued viability of a woodland caribou range will be protected by legal designation. No development will occur within these protected areas."

In 2006, the Manitoba government granted legal protection for woodland caribou under the Manitoba Endangered Species Act, which mandates habitat protection for listed species. CPAWS is asking the province to make the law a reality on the ground by protecting large, intact habitats required for caribou survival. Granting the huge land protection requests of First Nations in the vast, unspoiled east side of Lake Winnipeg will go a long way toward fulfilling the Manitoba government’s legal requirement to protect woodland caribou habitats.

Caribou Man's biography (PDF)

The woodland caribou’s home on the east side of Lake Winnipeg is part of the largest intact section of boreal forest in the world. The boreal forest is earth’s largest source of fresh water, a major contributor to the planet’s oxygen supply, and is a critical component in global climate regulation.

"Healthy woodland caribou populations indicate a healthy boreal forest ecosystem," said Ron Thiessen, CPAWS Manitoba Executive Director. "Protecting the majority of the boreal forest from industrial developments is key to ensuring a robust future for all life that depends on it."

The federal Species at Risk Act requires that a recovery strategy be prepared for each species listed as endangered or threatened. The Act mandates that the recovery strategy include an identification of the species’ critical habitat, to the extent possible. The federal government has committed to identifying critical habitat in the national recovery strategy for the boreal woodland caribou. Its paramount for the provincial government to collaborate on the swift identification of critical habitat.

"For woodland caribou, because of a delay of approximately two decades between the habitat changes and population demise ... there is urgency to detecting, diagnosing, and treating a decline", wrote Dr. James Schaefer who reviewed the provincial strategy. "This time lag between habitat loss and caribou disappearance [is] known as the 'extinction debt'."

According to a provincial government study, it is estimated that the Manitoba woodland caribou population has decreased by 50% since 1950.