WPC pledges to ‘Reverse the Red’ for 16 species in Canada

Posted onMarch 10, 2026|Conservation Planning, News and Events

What is Conservation Planning? Long-term conservation of endangered species continues to face new and emerging challenges, such as novel diseases and the impacts of climate change. In today’s world, the view that all species can be effectively conserved with minimal management simply by creating large areas of protected habitat is unrealistic. There is an increasing need for active management and long-term human intervention, guided by strategic plans that are tailored to the conservation needs of species. This is where CPSG Canada comes in!

CPSG Canada is a Regional Resource Center of the Conservation Planning Specialist Group (CPSG), part of the Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. To enhance national conservation efforts and save species, CPSG Canada employs CPSG’s globally recognized planning tools and processes, provides technical and facilitation support for planning workshops, and builds capacity for conservation planning in Canada. CPSG Canada is hosted by Wildlife Preservation Canada (WPC) and supported by members at African Lion Safari and Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo.

Reverse the Red, a coalition of organizations focused on improving conservation status of threatened species worldwide and meeting global biodiversity targets, has just released their Species Pledge database. Reverse the Red wants to see species move from more to less threatened categories on the IUCN Red List, the world’s most comprehensive source on the global extinction risk of animal, fungus and plant species. Species Pledges help to achieve this: they are commitments from organizations, including government agencies, NGOs, zoos, aquariums, and botanical gardens, to take meaningful action to halt decline and recover species. Reverse the Red provides data driven tools and collaborative partnerships to support the realization of these Species Pledges.

WPC, along with 12 other organizations in Canada, is working towards this collective effort. WPC’s experience in science-based techniques such as conservation breeding and release, reintroduction and translocation, enables us to take actions that have direct, positive impacts for animals on the brink of extinction. Everyday, we are actively working with many species across the country and developing innovative techniques that can be used around the world. Through collaborative efforts with our many partners, we are moving the needle for many of Canada’s most vulnerable species.

Find out more about what WPC is doing to ‘reverse the red’ for 16 endangered species in Canada:

Amphibians and Reptiles

Oregon spotted frog

Painted turtle

Eastern Massasauga rattlesnake

Butler’s garter snake

Eastern foxsnake

Blue racer

Birds

Burrowing owl

Eastern loggerhead shrike

Insects

Bumble bees

Karner blue

Mottled duskywing

Taylor’s checkerspot

Northern barrens tiger beetle

  • Status in Canada: Endangered
  • Collaborative actions: project in development

Stephanie Winton

CPSG Canada Convener and Conservation Planning Coordinator

Stephanie was Wildlife Preservation Canada’s 31st Canada’s New Noah in 2022 and has returned to WPC to apply her experience in integrated in situ and ex situ conservation management approaches and facilitation of species conservation planning workshops to build capacity and enhance conservation planning for species at risk in Canada. Stephanie holds an MSc from Thompson Rivers University where she researched the impacts of road mortality on western rattlesnake populations in BC and has over ten years of experience in conservation and research with a diversity of threatened species in Canada and globally, including burrowing owls, tiger salamanders, northern leopard frogs, black-tailed prairie dogs, and Mauritian reptiles.

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