Canadian Wildlife Service

The Canadian Wildlife Service or CWS (French: Service canadien de la faune, is a Branch of the Department of the Environment, also known as Environment and Climate Change Canada, a department of the Government of Canada. November 1, 2012 marked the 65th anniversary of the founding of Service (originally known as the Dominion Wildlife Service).

The Canadian Wildlife Service is Canada’s national wildlife agency. Its core area of responsibility is the protection and management of migratory birds and their nationally important habitats. Other areas of responsibility include species at risk, research on nationally important wildlife issues, control of international and interprovincial trade in endangered species and the negotiation and domestic implementation of international wildlife related treaties and agreements. CWS is responsible for Canada's National Wildlife Areas and Migratory Birds Sanctuaries which are federally protected areas.

Wildlife management in Canada is constitutionally a shared responsibility among the federal and provincial / territorial and aboriginal governments. CWS works closely with these governments on a wide variety of wildlife issues. The Service engages in cooperative management projects with a number of international and domestic non government agencies and funds a significant number of management and research or monitoring initiatives.

CWS in 2012 has approximately 450 staff and maintains biologists and/or research/operations facilities in all Canadian provinces and territories, except Prince Edward Island.

CWS traces its history to the early 20th century with the decline and/or extinction of several species of migratory birds in eastern North America as a result of hunting, including the passenger pigeon. It became apparent to the federal government that the provincial responsibilities toward hunting regulation of migratory birds by various sub-national jurisdictions (provinces in Canada, states in the United States) was limited in scope.

In 1916, Great Britain (for Canada) and the United States of America signed the "Migratory Birds Convention", followed by the Parliament of Canada passing the Migratory Birds Convention Act in 1917, which gave the federal government responsibility for managing migratory bird species either harmless or beneficial to man. The Convention adopted a uniform system of protection for certain species of birds which migrate between the United States and Canada, in order to assure the preservation of species including setting dates for closed seasons on migratory birds and prohibiting hunting insectivorous birds, but allowed killing of birds under permit when injurious to agriculture. The Convention was amended by the Parksville protocol (initialled by the parties in 1995) to update and improve the conservation of migratory birds and to establish a legal framework for the subsistence take of birds. Canada implemented the Protocol by enacting the revised Migratory Birds Convention Act, 1994.

...
Wikipedia