The changing status of imperilled species in British Columbia

Gaps in biodiversity protection occur in Canada due to limited jurisdiction of federal species-at-risk laws and the absence of dedicated legislation in many provinces, including British Columbia (B.C.). While lacking legal protection, B.C. maintains Red, Blue, and Yellow Lists of threatened, special-concern, and secure species, respectively, using a NatureServe ranking system. We compiled historical data on species status between 2008 and 2025 from the B.C. Conservation Data Centre. The province is currently home to 5521 Yellow, 1233 Blue, 493 Red-listed species, with a 25% rise in species at risk (Blue and Red) since 2008 due largely to the addition of species. Changes in status over this time period were reported for 1545 animal and 3775 plant species. While there was an even split in uplistings (more imperilled) and downlistings (less imperilled) for animals, plant species more often shifted to a lower risk category. Analyzing explanations for each change revealed that most were nongenuine (new information or methodology) rather than genuine (true changes in population size or threats), especially among downlistings. Genuine improvements in the status of species in B.C. have been exceedingly rare, indicating that current laws and regulations have been insufficient to recover species at risk within B.C.