CIER’s five-year plan to working with Indigenous communities and organizations to support species at risk has concluded.

The National Species at Risk Act – Consultation, Cooperation and Accommodation Project—or SARA-CCA—was initiated to facilitate Indigenous communities’ and organizations’ participation in Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Canadian Wildlife Service (ECCC-CWS) listing and recovery planning processes for terrestrial species at risk as part of the implementation of the federal Species at Risk Act. 

CIER’s role in this multi-year project was to support a range of activities between Indigenous communities and organizations, and ECCC-CWS on reserve lands and within traditional territories, including: 

• The development of actions to address threats, survival and recovery of terrestrial SAR; 
• The development of land use planning and recovery documents for terrestrial SAR; and,
• The sharing of knowledge and language related to terrestrial SAR.

The project was initiated as a pilot in British Columbia in 2020 and helped support several Indigenous communities’ and organizations’ participation in federal recovery planning for seven species:

• American Badger (Taxidea taxus)
• Bank Swallow (Riparia riparia)
• Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos)
• Marbled Murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus)
• Oregon Forest Snail (Allogona townsendiana)
• Woodland Caribou Southern Mountain population (Rangifer tarandus caribou)
• Western Screech-Owl (Megascops kennicottii). 

Following the pilot’s success, measures were put in place to enable continuation and expansion of the project for the next five years across Canada. The project officially concluded on March 31, 2026, and included numerous other terrestrial species at risk, such as Little Brown Bat (Myotis lucifugus), Wood Turtle (Glyptemys insculpta), and Black Ash (Fraxinus nigra).

An ECCC-CWS regional lead was allocated to each region to support delivery of project goals and objectives with support from CIER staff. While each region had its own workplan, the project had overarching goals:  

• To provide information and increase knowledge of the SARA and federally listed terrestrial SAR;
• To support capacity building and skill development allowing for the incorporation of SARA into land use planning, management and stewardship;
• To enhance opportunities to contribute in a meaningful way to the SARA listing and recovery planning for terrestrial SAR; and,
• To provide support for targeted recovery actions focused on species in the SARA legislated framework during Project years and beyond.

All of the funded projects were Indigenous-led with administrative support from CIER and funding provided by ECCC-CWS. The majority of applications included mammals, birds, and herpetofauna as the focal species groups, while other applications included invertebrates and plants. Some communities took a multi-species approach in order to design a program that would support wider habitat conservation programs, such as pollinator gardens.

We would like to thank every community member, organization, and team member who helped to make this project a success. We’re thrilled with the work and results that came from this project. We hope to work with species at risk again in the future.

More about the SARA-CCA project here.

Senior Project Manager – Kat Hewitt: [email protected]