Climate change Conservation planning Freshwater Peatlands

WCS Canada Comments: Government of B.C. Wetlands Permitting Consultations

Kirwood, A. & Goodday, V.

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WCS Canada comments on the Government of British Columbia's Natural Resources Permitting Improvement Surveys related to the mitigation hierarchy for wetlands and managing all wetland classes.

Key points

• Introducing a legislated requirement to apply the mitigation hierarchy to wetlands is essential and long overdue in B.C.
• Providing a wetland class-specific decision framework for application of the mitigation hierarchy to wetlands is a critical.
• Bogs are a class of peatland with large carbon stores and unique hydrology that facilitate the persistent removal of carbon from the atmosphere. Bogs must be protected under the Water Sustainability Act (WSA), along with shallow open-water wetlands, to close a significant gap in oversight of the protection of habitat for aquatic species, critical water storage and cycling functions, and carbon functions.
• The inclusion of bogs and shallow open-water wetlands in the WSA, in combination with requiring the application of the mitigation hierarchy, is an important step that the BC government can take to help Canada meet its international climate and biodiversity commitments as a signatory to the Paris Agreement and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

Abstract

In this submission, WCS Canada's peatlands team provides input on two separate but related BC Government consultation surveys related to wetlands and the Water Sustainability Act: "Applying the mitigation hierarchy in wetlands", and "Managing all wetland classes.

Recommended citation

Kirwood, A. & Goodday, V. (2025). WCS Canada Comments: Government of B.C. Wetlands Permitting Consultations. Wildlife Conservation Society Canada [WCS Canada]. https://wcscanada.org/resources/wcs-canada-comments-government-of-b.c-wetlands-permitting-consultations/