Other Laws and Policies that Help Protect Endangered Species in Ontario

Ontario Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act

Under this law, you cannot hunt, trap, buy or sell "specially protected wildlife” listed in the act. A number of species at risk are included in that list.

Ontario Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act and Ontario Parks Policy

This law and related Ontario Parks policy include provisions to protect endangered species in parks and protected areas. Ontario's protected areas cover 9.5 million hectares of provincial parks and conservation reserves, or about nine per cent of Ontario – some of which include habitat for many at-risk species.

Ontario Crown Forest Sustainability Act

This law requires that Forest Management Plans take threatened and endangered species into account and protect them within the area covered by the plan.

Provincial Policy Statement under the Planning Act

This policy is used by land use planners and others to help make sure that species at risk are not harmed by land development.

Federal Species at Risk Act

Like Ontario’s Endangered Species Act, this federal law is designed to prevent wildlife species from becoming extinct and to secure the necessary actions for their recovery.

The federal list of species at risk is determined by the federal government, based on the recommendations of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. In most cases, the same species are on both the federal and provincial lists.

Ontario's Endangered Species Act complements the federal law. Where work has already been done by the federal government, such as the development of a recovery strategy, Ontario will consider the federal strategy and may adopt it as the provincial recovery strategy.