Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada
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The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC, French: Comité sur la situation des espèces en péril au Canada, COSEPAC) is an independent committee of wildlife experts and scientists whose "raison d'être is to identify species at risk" in Canada.[1] It designates the conservation status of wild species.
It was established in 1977 to provide a single, scientifically sound classification of wildlife species at risk of extinction.[2] In the 2002 Species at Risk Act, COSEWIC was appointed as the body to identify and assess a species status. Although the status assigned by COSEWIC is not legally binding, it does report its results to the government and the public. The report is influential toward the addition of species to the List of Wildlife Species at Risk by the Minister of the Environment.[2][3]
Risk categories
By December 2013 there were "686 wildlife species in various COSEWIC risk categories, including 196 Special Concern (SC), 166 Threatened (T), 302 Endangered (E), 22 Extirpated (XT) (i.e., no longer found in the wild in Canada) and 15 wildlife species that are Extinct (X). The other category is not at risk (NAR).Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
COSEWIC provides online updated status reports on designated species.Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found.
Criteria
COSEWIC bases its quantitative criteria for species' status assessment on the revised IUCN Red List,Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Footnotes/anchor_id_list' not found. the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. COSEWIC provides International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world's main authority on the conservation status of species, with a Regional Red List.
Citations
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- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Frequently Asked Questions About the Species at Risk Act". Government of Canada, Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Archived from the original on 2007-05-20. Retrieved 2007-07-14.
- ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."COSEWIC and the Species at Risk Act". Government of Canada, Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. Archived from the original on 2009-11-10. Retrieved 2007-07-14.
References
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Wildlife Species Search", Environment Canada, 11 July 2011 [2002], archived from the original on 20 December 2013, retrieved 18 December 2013
- Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Learning from the past to protect the future", COSEWIC, Press release, 1 December 2013, archived from the original on 3 December 2013, retrieved 19 December 2013
External links
- COSEWIC's website
- Species at Risk website
- Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada website (archived 2007)
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