Pan-Canadian Approach to Wildlife Health Approved
Canada now has a national plan for wildlife health. The Pan-Canadian Approach to Wildlife Health was approved on June 28th by Canada’s federal, provincial, and territorial Ministers responsible for Parks, Protected Areas, Conservation, Wildlife and Biodiversity.
Dr. Craig Stephen, CEO of the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative applauds this development as a critical to ensuring Canada can effectively act to protect wildlife in a rapidly changing world. “Wildlife is somewhat of an orphan in government “says Stephen. “While many government agencies have obligations and needs for healthy wildlife and require assurances that wildlife present no risk to conservation, public health, or economies, no one agency holds responsibility for delivering a national program. Without shared goals it is hard to plan and coordinate actions to protect wildlife health.”
The CWHC has worked hard over the past 4 years to craft this plan and with the leadership of Environment and Climate Change Canada, were able to launch a vision of wildlife health that meets challenges faced across different government agencies and jurisdictions.
A shared vision for wildlife health will help the CWHC align regional centre activities towards common goals and help us better demonstrate how the Cooperative contributes to shared needs. It provides a foundation for growth and sustainability of the CWHC. The next step is to get agreement and actions to implement the plan, a step that the CWHC will foster through continued evidence-based advocacy to our government partners.
For more information, please see the following news release:
http://www.scics.ca/en/conference/federal-provincial-territorial-meeting-of-ministers-responsible-for-parks-protected-areas-conservation-wildlife-and-biodiversity-2/
