Endangered species management: the US experience

To many people around the world, the conservation of endangered species is synonymous with the conservation of biodiversity. Ecologists, of course, understand that biodiversity encompasses far more than endangered species, but it is nonetheless true that endangered species are among the most visible and easily understood symbols of the ongoing loss of biodiversity (see Chapter 10). The protection of such species is a popular and important part of efforts to sustain the earth’s natural diversity (see Box 12.1). The process of conserving endangered species can be divided into three phases: (i) identification—determining which species are in danger of extinction; (ii) protection—determining and implementing the short-term measures necessary to halt a species’ slide to extinction; and (iii) recovery—determining and implementing the longer-term measures necessary to rebuild the population of the species to the point at which it is no longer in danger of extinction. Many countries today have laws or programs designed to protect endangered species, although the efficacy of these efforts varies widely. Most follow the identification/protection/recovery paradigm. One of the oldest and strongest laws is the United States’ Endangered Species Act (ESA), which was passed in 1973 and has served as a template for many other nations. In this chapter, I shall focus on the three phases of endangered species management, emphasizing the US experience. My reason for emphasizing the US is not because I believe it has done a better job of protecting its endangered species than other countries. Rather, I am most familiar with conservation efforts in the US. Moreover, because the US has one of the oldest and strongest laws on the books to protect endangered species, it provides a useful case history. My discussion is admittedly incomplete and, to some extent, idiosyncratic. Endangered species programs, especially those that impose restrictions on human activities, are invariably controversial, and that controversy results in much discussion and debate. The ESA, for example, has been the subject of many books, scientific articles, and popular articles; it has been debated in the halls of Congress and in town halls across the nation; and it has been litigated numerous times in the courts. Complete coverage of all of the issues associated with endangered species in the US or any other large country is simply not possible in a single book chapter. For that reason, I have chosen to review a subset of issues that are likely to be of interest to both scientists and decision-makers in countries with active programs to conserve endangered species.