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Laws are in place to protect Ontario’s wildlife and the habitat that sustains them. The outcome for wildlife protection depends on our understanding of and compliance with the laws in place. The various Acts serve many conservation purposes.
 

SNAKE PROTECTION AND ONTARIO LAW

COSEWIC, RENEW, AND COSSARO

In Canada, federal and provincial government agencies and non-governmental organizations co-ordinate wildlife species conservation through the Canadian Endangered Species Conservation Council (CESCC), and the committee for the Recovery of Nationally Endangered Wildlife (RENEW). The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) designates species at risk and RENEW oversees recovery activities. COSEWIC evaluates and designates species as not at risk, special concern, threatened, endangered, extirpated or extinct. Provincially, the Committee on the Status of Species at Risk in Ontario (COSSARO) also uses criteria to designate a species into an at risk category.

COSEWIC SPECIES RISK CATEGORIES

EXTINCT
A species that no longer exists.

EXTIRPATED
A species that no longer exists in the wild in Canada, but occurring elsewhere.

ENDANGERED
A species facing imminent extirpation or extinction.

THREATENED
A species that is likely to become endangered if limiting factors are not reversed.

SPECIAL CONCERN
A species is of special concern because of characteristics that make it particularly sensitive to human activities or natural events.