Thus Ecojustice and CPAWS were recently happy when the Federal Court overturned the Minister’s decision. The court decided that Alberta’s caribou herds are in trouble, and the federal minister must respond under the Species At Risk Act.

As Ecojustice notes in its news release, “Protections for caribou in northeastern Alberta need to be implemented soon. Some herds have declined by more than 70 per cent during the past 15 years.”

“It is not immediately apparent how, given the foregoing facts, the Minister reasonably could have concluded that there are no imminent threats to the national recovery of boreal caribou,” Federal Court Justice Crampton wrote in his decision.

Now the Minister will have to put in emergency protection of critical habitat for threatened caribou herds in northeastern Alberta.

In March 1991, Ducks Unlimited (DU) scientists had realized that the organization needed to expand its capability to study factors affecting waterfowl populations on a much broader scale, and IWWR was born.

“From the beginning, IWWR focused on engaging graduate students,” says Dave Howerter, IWWR national manager. “By partnering with universities to support graduate research, DU ensured that the next generation of conservation scientists would receive the training required to help fulfill DU’s mission, while focusing the intellectual resources housed at universities on topics important to our conservation companies.”

In its 20 years, IWWR has led or participated in nearly 300 studies throughout North America, while helping to train graduate students from over 40 universities, and collaborating with more than 45 external research agencies.

In addition, IWWR-sponsored research has resulted in more than 540 graduate theses, book chapters and peer-reviewed technical journal articles. Today, IWWR is comprised of a core team of 15 staff. It has come a long ways since 1991.

The Tongass and Chugach are home to centuries-old trees providing critical habitat for wolves, grizzly bears, wild salmon, bald eagles, and other wildlife. These forests provide sustainable long-term jobs in thriving fishing and tourism industries—both threatened by industrial-scale logging and road building.

Protecting the roadless areas in Alaska helps commercial fishing and tourism, which are the largest private employers in the Tongass and Chugach. The Forest Service has determined that there is sufficient timber on the existing road system, unaffected by the Roadless Rule, to continue logging at current levels indefinitely. So the move to put roads into the national forests is an unnecessary step designed to help just a few timber companies.

Let’s hope the new bill is defeated.

The report emphasizes that recovery is achievable but the challenges are substantial. The decline of woodland caribou stems primarily from loss of their boreal forest habitat. Caribou need old forests, typically more than 50 years old, and they range over large areas, often thousands of square kilometres. Because woodland caribou need large tracts of undisturbed forest, measures to protect them are certain to enhance the conservation of many other species.

Meanwhile, the woodland caribou presents conservation challenges. Woodland caribou reproduce slowly, are very sensitive to disturbances, move readily across extensive areas, have low-density populations and make their home in intact, old forests

In short, to conserve woodland caribou means dispensing with business as usual, which has demonstrably and repeatedly failed to meet caribou conservation needs, the report states.

More than anything, woodland caribou present an invitation to realize a new path to resource development and a long-term vision for sustaining multiple values of the boreal forest, the report suggests.

Ecojustice, Sierra Club BC and the Wilderness Committee recently stated  that the BC government’s Species at Risk Task Force report makes weak recommendations that fall far short of the legal protection needed by BC’s 1,900 at risk species.

The 34 page report points to climate change, degraded ecosystems, limitations to current conservation approaches and difficulties in protecting species on private land as the main threats to BC wildlife. But the report falls short by not calling for a stand-alone endangered species law.

“It’s too little, too late for endangered species” said George Heyman, Executive Director of Sierra Club BC.

BC has over 1,900 species at risk, including grizzly bears, spotted owls, phantom orchids, Vancouver Island marmots and killer whales. BC is home to 75 per cent of Canada’s bird species, 70 per cent of its freshwater fish species and 66 per cent of its butterfly species. Currently, 87 per cent of species at risk in BC don’t receive any protection under either provincial of federal laws.

“Endangered species in BC need real action – and they need it now,” suggested Gwen Barlee, policy director with the Wilderness Committee.

The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) reacted to the report with cautious praise and optimism, but several criticisms as well. CPAWS National Conservation Director Alison Woodley suggests that Canada should take a leadership role in conservation, saying that, “With our vast and relatively intact landscape, Canada has a huge opportunity to become a world leader in protected areas. We need to step up to the challenge”.

In general, Canada seems to be moving in the right direction. In the past decade alone, the percentage of temporary and permanently protected land has increased from 6.6% to 12%. This includes the creation or expansion of national parks in areas such as the Northwest Territories, Newfoundland and Labrador. But the status of some of these temporarily protected areas remains uncertain, and there is concern that they may one day become again available to industry.

Ideally, CPAWS believes that Canada should protect at least half of its public lands and waters. Some provinces are moving towards this goal. Ontario, for example, has committed to protecting at least half of its northern boreal forest, while Quebec has committed to protect half of the northern areas of the province from industrial development. But it remains concerning that other provinces, such as New Brunswick, are stagnating in the effort to protect Canada’s wilderness. Continued work is required for Canada to move closer towards the goal of conserving its biodiversity and slowing the effects of habitat loss and industry.

According to Conversation International, this International Union for Conservation of Nature(TM)-backed conservation plan is the first endorsed by the governments from these nations.

“Both our governments recognize the great importance of biodiversity conservation in safeguarding our natural heritage, and we have therefore been closely involved in the development of this conservation action plan,” said Republic of Cameroon Minister of Forestry and Wildlife Prof. Elvis Ngolle Ngolle.

A collection of zoos, universities and NGO’s have agreed on a priority list of sites and conservation actions urgently needed to secure the remaining wild populations. “The action plans set out the priority sites and actions that need to be instigated if we are to stem the decline in this chimpanzee,” said Bethan Morgan, Ph.D., head of the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research’s Central Africa Program and lead author of the action plan.

In addition to identifying priority actions specific to each site, the plan considers region-wide actions, such as improving transboundary collaboration and law enforcement, a need for additional conservation research, participation and support of local people, additional recruitment and training of rangers and improving community livelihoods. All these are solutions for saving endangered animals, plants and spaces.

“By highlighting chimpanzees as ‘flagship’ species, we will be protecting much of the remaining biodiversity in these areas,” said Federal Republic of Nigeria Minister of Environment John Odey.

“This action plan is the culmination of years of hard work and will hopefully bring attention to this little-known subspecies of chimpanzee, which is restricted to the Guinean Forests of West Africa, one of the richest and most endangered places on Earth,” said Dr. Russell A. Mittermeier, chairman of the IUCN Primate Specialist Group and President of Conservation International, which helped to fund the action plan.

Some of the information, such as that they have an on-site veterinary centre and laboratory, seems guessable. To me, this is something that you might expect any respectable zoo to have.

I knew Durrell was good, but it surprised me that since its opening in 1959, over 13,000 animals have been born at Durrell. The numbers are impressive. Since 1959 Durrell has bred over 420 Meller’s ducks, 350 Mallorcan midwife toads, 330 Round Island boas, 535 Jamaican boas, 440 Mauritius pink pigeons, 715 Bali starlings, 351 Rodrigues fruit bats, 156 Madagascar teal, 133 pied tamarins, 41 gentle lemurs, 21 western lowland gorillas and 10 Sumatran orangutans.

It’s also interesting that Durrell has more than 40 projects in 17 countries for 48 animal species. This gives great hope for these species. Durrell is experienced – they were the key partner in saving four of 16 bird species from extinction between 1994 and 2004.

Durrell provides hope for endangered plants as well, since they not only save animals from extinction but plants too.

If you’re in the UK, you might want to select the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust as an organization worthy of your support.

Despite their unglamorous nature, corals and sponges play an important role in ocean ecosystems. As filter feeders, they help maintain the delicate balance of the ocean. Additionally, the bodies of corals and sponges form habitats for other animals, such as rockfish. They need conservation. However, sponges and corals are not very well studied and are easily damaged by human activities. As well, the location of many of Canada’s coral reefs are not documented, which makes it difficult to protect them from fisheries and other industries. If the strategy is to succeed, more basic research into sponges and corals will be required.

At the same time, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society is also urging the Canadian government to look at the marine ecosystem as a whole and establish 12 new protected areas by the end of 2012, calling it an “ambitious but doable target”.

The twelve sites that CPAWS recommends for protection include areas in the Pacific Ocean that are home to tufted puffins, endangered orca whales and species of rockfish. In the Atlantic, they suggest protecting zones off the Eastern coast which are home to endangered leatherback turtles, several species of whales, and a variety of commercial fish. And in the Northern waters, Lancaster Sound and areas of James Bay are highlighted as important areas, partly for the Narwhal and Bowhead whales they are home to.

The animal that might have inspired the unicorn stories, the Arabian Oryx, is once again gracing the Arabian Peninsular, according to the IUCN. A-grain-of-hope-in-the-desert Hunted till it was extinct in the wild, the oryx was captive bred until there were enough animals to release into the wild. There are now 1,000 individuals, and the oryx has qualified for a move from the Endangered category to Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List—the first time that a species that was once Extinct in the Wild has improved by three categories.

The other animal with good news is the Orange-Tailed Skink, which was recently rescued by the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.  The story makes for great conservation reading.

The skink was discovered on Flat Island, the largest of the Mauritian islands, in 1995. Since then it has been increasingly threatened elsewhere in Mauritius by habitat modification and the introduction of non-native predators and the only surviving population was on Flat Island. Then fears of development on Flat Island in 2008 led the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust to translocate 82 orange-tailed skinks to a nature reserve. Predatory shrews were found on Flat Island in 2010, and a futher 390 orange-tailed skinks were translocated. A recent expedition to Flat Island found that no orange-tailed skinks have survived on the Island. So if it wasn’t for the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the skink would be extinct.

Now we need to achieve this conservation success with other endangered species.