In response to the widespread crisis of amphibian declines, the global IUCN Amphibian Specialist Group developed a new (2024) Amphibian Conservation Action Plan that provides a framework for conservation actions. We use this framework to review current procedures and practices and identify challenges specific for amphibians across Canada. Most species exist at the northern limits of their global distribution in Canada where amphibian species richness is greatest in the south that supports 90% of the country’s human population. This review is organized under five thematic schemes: 1) conservation planning, 2) assessing and managing wide-ranging threats, 3) documenting distributions and population trends, 4) ex-situ techniques, translocations, and management, 5) and amphibian genomics resources. In each section, we present a synthesis of recent literature (past ~10–15 years) and make recommendations to address data gaps and key issues. Sixty-eight percent of amphibians in Canada are listed at risk and therefore require conservation interventions to ensure their recovery. Habitat loss and fragmentation are major threats to many amphibians despite efforts to protect and restore important habitats. Climate change poses an overarching influence across the country with potentially serious but largely untracked impacts on amphibians. Research on pollution has focused on the impacts of oil sands extraction, agriculture, and emerging contaminants on amphibians and resulted in the identification of significant effects on growth, development, gene expression, and behavior. Progress has been made in the development and application of new and innovative approaches to conservation, including genetic tools and emerging non-invasive methods such as environmental DNA analyses that help uncover phylogenetic relationships, biodiversity, and evaluate responses to a changing environment, pollutants, and pathogens. These tools can also assist in breeding/translocation programs, conservation planning, habitat protection, and management. Several large-scale Canadian projects have contributed substantially to amphibian genomics resources. Indigenous-led environmental projects are gaining momentum but only rarely focus on amphibians. The challenge remains to identify and secure habitat of sufficient quantity and quality to support robust amphibian populations across Canadian landscapes and to manage threats timely through strategies that are inclusive of diverse perspectives, including Indigenous “ways of knowing”.
Ashpole et al. (Tue,) studied this question.