Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. I'm here today with Basile van Havre, director general of domestic and international biodiversity policy at the Canadian Wildlife Service.
I will focus my remarks on the commissioner's report on conserving biodiversity. We welcome the commissioner's recommendations, and are taking actions to ensure that they are addressed. The Government of Canada is committed to meeting its international commitments for biodiversity.
As you know, biodiversity conservation is a shared responsibility. Achieving Canada's national biodiversity targets requires action and support across all levels of government, indigenous peoples, and many others.
The 2020 biodiversity goals and targets for Canada were developed following an extensive collaborative process. Our government, working with partners, has already taken actions to make progress on those targets. The Government of Canada is equally committed to fulfilling its obligations under federal wildlife legislation, including the Species at Risk Act. We are working with provinces, territories, and indigenous people on the protection and recovery of Canada's species at risk—including caribou, which were mentioned in the report—using robust recovery plans based on the best available science and traditional knowledge.
The Government of Canada developed a three-year plan to address the backlog of 149 terrestrial species eligible for listing under the act. Since February 2017, final listing decisions have been made for 76 of these species, and proposed listing decisions were published for another 13.
The Government of Canada has also addressed the backlog of overdue recovery documents for terrestrial species. As of today, 178 of the 192 overdue proposed recovery documents have been completed and posted on the species at risk public registry.
In February, since the report was completed, we published the action plan on boreal caribou, and yesterday we published a report under section 63 of the Species at Risk Act on unprotected critical habitat for boreal caribou and the steps that are being taken to protect that critical habitat. We will continue to work with provinces and territories, who are the leads for lands under their jurisdiction, to ensure the protection of boreal caribou critical habitat and to meaningfully advance protection and recovery measures for this iconic species. This includes ongoing efforts to establish conservation agreements with provinces and territories, and to formalize commitments and accelerate actions to protect and recover boreal caribou.
We are also working with Parks Canada, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and our provincial and territorial colleagues to protect 17% of terrestrial areas and inland waters and 10% of marine areas by 2020. My colleague from DFO has already has already spoken about the marine component, and my colleague from Parks Canada will say more about the terrestrial target.
Through budget 2018, it is proposed that $1.3 billion be allocated over five years to protect Canada's ecosystems, landscapes and biodiversity. This investment will directly contribute toward reaching our targets for protected areas, protecting and recovering species at risk.
The funds allocated in budget 2018 will allow us to: increase our efforts to protect species at risk; put in place new recovery measures for priority species, areas at risk and threats to our environment; advance implementation of SARA by supporting species assessment, listing, recovery and action plan activities; expand national wildlife areas and migratory bird sanctuaries; improve the management of our protected areas; and establish a coordinated network of conservation areas by working with provincial, territorial and indigenous partners.
For the other 19 targets, all partners are engaged in assessing progress against our commitments as part of the “Sixth National Report to the Convention on Biological Diversity”, due in December 2018. This report will provide important information on the status of biodiversity, and from that we'll look at how best to collectively address the challenges and gaps.