The Wildlife Act is the main provincial law for protecting
wildlife, endangered species and wildlife habitat. The Act has a number of provisions for protecting, managing, and purchasing
habitat areas as well as protecting endangered and threatened species. The Act is administered by the Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection.
The Act employs two primary vehicles for managing wildlife:
managing wildlife takings through
licensing schemes and particular species protection measures; and managing habitat areas.
Management of wildlife takings and species protection
The province controls hunting, trapping, fishing and guide
outfitting activities through a regulatory and licensing scheme established
under the Wildlife Act and its regulations, and through controls such as
seasonal and area closures. The new Hunting and
Fishing Heritage Act confirms the right of a person to hunt and fish in
accordance with the law.
Further to section 108 of the Wildlife Act, the Lieutenant
Governor in Council is given a broad power to make regulations. This includes the power to regulate all
activities concerned with the taking of wildlife, for example:
·
setting of licence fees
·
limiting the numbers of wildlife that may be taken
·
setting open and closed hunting seasons
·
proscribing the use of certain types of firearms, and
means of hunting
Some key regulations are the Firearm and
Hunting Licensing Regulation, the Hunter Safety
Training Regulation, the Hunting
Regulation and the Closed
Areas Regulation.
Aside from the provisions that regulate hunting and similar
activities, there are a number of provisions focused on protection
for particular species.
Habitat protection
The Act provides various tools for
protecting habitat. For more
information about habitat protection measures, go to our Guide’s page on habitat protection.
Problems with the Act
The Wildlife Act provides some tools for protecting wildlife
in watersheds, though the Act’s application to fish species is limited due to
the Act’s restricted definition of “wildlife” set out in section 1 (which
generally excludes fish, except for in relation to a few sections).
The fact that endangered and threatened species designations
are discretionary and rarely made underlines some of the Act’s weaknesses. Also, the fact that due to the restricted
definition of “wildlife” some species, such as fish, cannot be designated as
endangered or threatened is a serious shortcoming.
The Wildlife Act also does not contain strong prohibitions
against destruction or damage to wildlife habitat. Only habitat within a Wildlife Management Area (WMA) is
protected, and the total area of land in the province covered by WMA’s is very
small. In addition, the Act has been
criticized since it has no policies for wildlife habitat management and no
written requirement for mitigation or compensation when wildlife habitat is
damaged or destroyed by a new project or development.
·
Wildlife Act - Habitat Protection
·
Wildlife Act - Protection for
Particular Species
·
Electronic version of the Wildlife Act
·
Hunting
in British Columbia and Biodiversity
and Wildlife pages of the Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection
website.
