Caribou are a nationally iconic species in British Columbia
Program Background
The Provincial Caribou Recovery Program is a long-term commitment that includes all B.C. caribou herds in a comprehensive and uniform approach to conservation, based on traditional knowledge and science.
The province has already committed to $47 million over 5 years for caribou recovery efforts.
For more information on Provincial Caribou Recovery Program please view the Provincial Caribou Recovery Program Overview and the Provincial Caribou Recovery Program Annual Report 2017/2018 or visit gov.bc.ca/caribou
Caribou Recovery Program
For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples hunted caribou, and many continue to do so today. Caribou are still found across the nation, and in the boreal forest and arctic regions of other northern countries.
British Columbia is home to the woodland caribou, Rangifer tarandus caribou. The herds found in its mountainous mature forests are an important part of the natural food chain and the rich biodiversity in the province.
Sadly, like many wildlife species around the world, caribou numbers are declining in Canada. Caribou have declined from 40,000 in B.C. in the 1900s to approximately 15,500 caribou today. In the past three decades, many B.C. caribou herds have become threatened. The federal government has increased its efforts under the Species at Risk Act to protect them, while the Province has used its own policies and targeted management plans.
