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SHAPE of Nature

The SHAPE (Species, Habitats, Actions, Policies, and Evaluations) of Nature provides a comprehensive clearinghouse of information on nature and conservation in Canada that is founded on science and accessible to everyone.

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WCS Canada comments on Canada's Critical Minerals Strategy, to Natural Resources Canada

The federal government’s draft Critical Minerals Strategy is structured around colonial ‘new frontiers’ mindset that leads to a focus on expediting extraction instead of understanding the real consequences of opening up some of the world’s last remaining ecologically intact areas and carbon-rich stores to industrial development.

Northern Mountains and Yukon

Wolverine

Big picture conservation solutions

Freshwater Fish

WCS Canada scientists get their boots muddy studying wildlife and wild places across Canada in hopes of spurring action to address our growing biodiversity crisis.

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Bats

Wild Places

Arctic Mammals

Ontario Northern Boreal

Our work to save wildlife

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The Fawn River Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) Ecological Atlas

The Fawn River Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) Ecological Atlas is the product of a collaboration between Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Canada. Our goal in producing the Atlas was to continue to advance scientific support for the Fawn River IPA in order to complement and advance KI’s vision for protecting their homelands.

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Fighting to protect B.C.'s Northern Caribou before they 'vanish in front of our eyes'

Why wait until caribou herds are on the verge of collapse to protect them? WCS Canada researchers say we should act now to conserve northern B.C. habitat.

Latest Publications

Microbial isolates with Anti‑Pseudogymnoascus destructans activities from Western Canadian bat wings
Forsythe, A. et al. (incl. Lausen, C.L.). 2022. Scientific Reports 12:9895

Efficacy and ethics of intensive predator management to save endangered caribou
Johnson, C.J., Ray, J.C and St-Laurent, M-H. 2022. Conservation Science and Practice e12729

Developing a national level evidence-based toolbox for addressing freshwater biodiversity threats
Reid et al. (incl. O'Connor, C.M.). 2022. Biological Conservation 269:109533

Coupling validation effort with in situ bioacoustic data improves estimating relative activity and occupancy for multiple species with cross-species misclassifications
Stratton, C. et al (incl. Lausen, C. and Rae, J. ). 2022. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. 2022;00:1-16.

Quantifying firebrand production and transport using the acoustic analysis of in-fire cameras.
Quantifying firebrand production and transport using the acoustic analysis of in-fire cameras. Thompson, D. K. et al. (incl. Yip, D.A.) Fire Technology

WCS Canada newsletter

WCS Canada's newsletters have stories about our scientists in the field, interesting insights about wildlife and important conservation alerts.

Read our latest e-News: Using all our senses to understand the wild world

Latest policy comments

WCS Canada comments on Critical Minerals Strategy to Natural Resources Canada - September 2022
A Critical Minerals (CM) strategy is one important step and welcomed, given the need for Canada to strengthen supply chains to support the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources to address climate commitments. In its present form, however, the draft strategy and accompanying discussion questions are oriented around a relatively narrow and short-term economic growth perspective, rather than one that emphasizes sustainability in the full sense of the word, i.e., including ecological and social dimensions. It also fails to adequately consider the impact on Indigenous communities and the need to respect and support Indigenous sovereignty in impacted regions. Describing critical minerals as a 'generational opportunity', the strategy does not adequately cover impacts on current and future generations if the extraction of critical minerals does not deliberately consider social, environmental, and long-term economic costs.

Updated WCS recommendations on the draft post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework
WCS published our initial recommendations on Draft 1 of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) in August 2021. WCS urges CBD Parties to ensure that the post-2020 global biodiversity framework (GBF), as adopted by Parties at CBD CoP15.2 in December 2022, does the following four things: 1. Establishes a goal of improving ecological integrity by 2030, including by retaining natural, high integrity (or intact) ecosystems. 2. Sets a meaningful and equitable target to protect and conserve at least 30% of land and ocean areas by 2030. 3. Commits Parties to eliminate trade and use of wildlife that presents ecological risks or that endangers human or wildlife health through the potential for pathogen spillover. 4. Incorporate the monitoring framework and glossary to streamline the GBF “package.”

WCS Canada Comments on Yukon's Clean Energy Act January2022
WCS Canada scientists have been working in Yukon since 2004 on land use and protected areas planning, land and water management, wildlife conservation research, and policy applications for conservation science. The Government of Yukon is committed to reducing the Yukon’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with the exception of mining emissions, by 45 per cent by 2030, reaching net-zero emissions across the Yukon’s entire economy by 2050. These are our comments on the proposed Clean Energy Act in Yukon.

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Photo credits: Banner | Susan Morse © News | Mountain landscape: Susan Morse ©, River: Maitland Conservation Authority ©, Caribou: Don Reid © WCS Canada, Peatlands: Mike Oldham | Bat with WNS © NPS/Creative Commons License | Mosaic: Northern Mountains: Hilary Cooke © WCS Canada, Wolverine: Susan Morse ©. Brook Trout: Engbretson Underwater Photography ©, Bat: Cory Olson ©, Wild Places: Hilary Cooke © WCS Canada, Ontario River: Constance O'Connor © WCS Canada, Caribou: Susan Morse © | Black-capped chickadee © Malcolm Boothroyd | Yukon mining: Chrystal Mantyka-Pringle © WCS Canada.