Tuesday, October 23, 2012 | 7 p.m. | FREE
UBC WESB 100 (6174 University Boulevard, Vancouver)
The goal of Canada’s Species at Risk Act (SARA) is to prevent the loss of Canada’s biodiversity. Ten years after the enactment of SARA, more than 500 species have been listed, including icons like the Vancouver Island marmot, polar bear and burrowing owl, but excluding others like Atlantic cod, tri-colored bat and the coast manroot. Once listed, the act requires a species recovery plan be developed, but more than half of the species listed under SARA still await plans, with only a handful moved forward to the action stage.
To explore how well SARA has been implemented, collaborators from UBC and SFU analyzed the progress towards recovering species at risk. Though challenges exist, full implementation of SARA has the potential to effectively protect Canada’s species at risk.
Presenter: Jeannette Whitton, Director of UBC Herbarium, Beaty Biodiversity Museum
Jeannette Whitton is an evolutionary biologist who studies the origin and spread of plants in nature. She studied at Macdonald College (McGill University) as an undergraduate before pursuing a Ph. D. at the University of Connecticut. Jeannette arrived at UBC in 1997, and is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Botany, and a Member of the Biodiversity Research Centre. She has been the director of the UBC Herbarium since 2006, and was Scientific Co-director of the Beaty Biodiversity Museum in 2011. She has served as a member of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) since 2007.
Co-Sponsors: Beaty Biodiversity Museum, Biodiversity Research Centre and UBC Department of Botany
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