Navigating the Species at Risk Public Registry

Context, overview and general information

General information relating to the Species at Risk Act (SARA) is available in the Species at risk area. Documents required by the Act can be found on the Species at Risk (SAR) Public Registry. You can also find other information relating to species and components of the Act in broad categories.

A note about “Date modified” on registry pages: Please note that the date modified in the registry may only apply to the coding of the page and not the content.

Document search

Under the Species at Risk Act (SARA), various types of documents are required to be published on the Species at Risk (SAR) Public Registry. You can filter your search results according to your needs.  There are several ways to streamline your search:

  • Keywords: search by document titles, document descriptions and species related to documents.
  • Publication date: search for documents published in a period of time
  • Document type filter: Retrieves documents based on type
  • Recovery document status filter: Retrieves recovery documents  based on their consultation status 
  • Range filter: Retrieves documents based on the geographical range of the related species in the documents
  • Taxonomic Group filter: Retrieves documents based on the taxonomic classification of the related species in the documents

Sort documents by any combination of

  • Document type
  • Date published
  • Keywords (title, the species (if applicable) and description
  • Location (if document related to a species)
  • Taxonomic group (if document related to a species)
  • Recovery document status (action plans, recovery strategies, management plans)

Species search

The species search allows you to access these profiles in a variety of ways. Sort species by any combination of

  • Keywords (searches common name, scientific name and population in both English and French)
  • Province, territory or ocean (Range)
  • Taxonomic group (mammal, bird, reptile, etc;)
  • Legal status (under SARA)
  • Most recent assessment status (COSEWIC status)
  • SARA schedule (officially protected under the Act or not)
  • Whether they are being considered for legal protection under the Act
Links to every document and permit published under the Act that relate to these species are also available in the species profiles. In the species profiles you will find information, links and permits published under the Act that relate to these species.

Permit search

Permits are issued under SARA in order to allow for various activities which would otherwise contravene the Act. Sort permits by any combination of

  • Keywords (purpose, description or related species)
  • Status (whether the permit is active)
  • Issuing authority (which federal government department or agency issued the permit)
  • Year (when was the permit active)
  • Initial month of activity
  • Location (province, territory or ocean)
  • Which Act was used (SARA permits can be issued through Canada National Parks Act, Canada Wildlife Act, Fisheries Act, Migratory Bird Convention Act, other Acts of Parliament, and the Species at Risk Act)

Consultations search

Several documents are available to the Canadian public for comments. You can read about current and past consultations. Sort consultations by any combination of

  • Currently open and completed consultations
  • Year (year in which the consultation originated?)

Birds protected by the Migratory Birds Convention Act and protected under SARA Schedule 1

This is a list of birds that are classified as endangered, threatened, extirpated under the Species at Risk Act and are protected by the Migratory Birds Convention Act (MBCA).

Adobe PDF

Some documents on this website are provided in the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). To access these documents, you must first download and install the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Page details

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