Federal-Provincial-Territorial Meeting of Ministers responsible for Wildlife

RENEW (REcovery of Nationally Endangered Wildlife) was launched as a strategy for recovery of plant and wildlife species at risk by the Wildlife Minister's Council of Canada in 1988.

To implement the strategy, the Ministers also established a RENEW Committee to coordinate and promote wildlife conservation activities. The committee consists of the Wildlife Directors of the federal, provincial and territorial agencies and representatives of three national non-government at organizations (Canadian Nature Federation, Canadian Wildlife Federation, World Wildlife Fund Canada).

The RENEW Strategy has the following objectives:

   
• No endangered species in Canada will be allowed to become extirpated or extinct;
   
• No new species will be allowed to become threatened or up-listed to endangered;
   
• When and where possible, extirpated species will be reintroduced to Canada;
   
• Recovery plans will be prepared for all threatened and endangered species;
   
• Recovery programs will be initiated, where feasible, to work towards removing species from threatened, endangered, or extirpated status.

RENEW's efforts have been dedicated to threatened and endangered terrestrial vertebrates, but recently recovery teams have been established for three plant species (Fernald's Braya, Long's Braya and the Red Mulberry) and one ecosystem (the South Okanagan).

An annual report has been produced most years since 1989 by the RENEW Committee for presentation to the Wildlife Ministers. The ninth RENEW report, covering the period 1 April 1998 to 31 March 1999, is the first to be released by the new Canadian Endangered Species Conservation Council.

The report provides the public with information about the recovery efforts under way for RENEW species: the research and recovery activities of the preceding year, the progress made towards achieving recovery plan goals, and the objectives for the year to come. It also summarizes the resources invested in each species' recovery program by each contributing organization during the past fiscal year, and provides lists of recovery team members.

Under the Accord for the Protection of Species at Risk, federal, provincial and territorial jurisdictions agreed to develop recovery plans within short prescribed time-frames. RENEW is currently being redesigned to meet these requirements. A more efficient and effective recovery process is evolving, that will promote quick action by channeling funds, effort and time to on-the-ground projects and activities that recover species at risk.