Science and the Endangered Species Act (1995) / Chapter Skim
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("Subspecies" of plants and animals and "distinct population segments" of vertebrates can also qualify for protection as species uncler the ESA.) Endangered species and their critical habitats receive extremely strong protection; it is illegal to take any endangered species of animal (or plant in some circumstances)
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The committee's membership includes expertise in ecology; systematics; population genetics; wildlife management; risk and decision analysis; the legal, legislative, and administrative history of the Endangered Species Act; economics; and the implementation of the ESA from public and private perspectives. The committee's statement of task is based very closely on the letter of request from the three members of Congress (see Appendix A)
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Many scientific advances have been made since the ESA was passed in 1973, and they provide opportunities to improve the act's implementation, especially with respect to identifying species, subspecies, and distinct population segments, with respect to estimating risks of extinction, and economic and decision analyses. Although it is difficult to quantify the effectiveness of the act in preventing species extinction, there is no doubt that it has prevented the extinction of some species and slowed the declines of others.
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THE SPECIES CONCEPT Species of organisms are iGunciamental objects of attention in all societies, and different cultures have extensive literatures on the history of species concepts. The Endangered Species Act (ESA)
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Hence we suggest designation of survival habitat. Survival habitat would be designated at the time of listing of an endangered species, unless insufficient information were available or harm to the species would occur.
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Indefinite delays in designating critical habitat and formulating recovery plans after designation of survival habitat might cause harm to economic interests anti to the endangered species itself. Therefore, implementation of this recommendation needs to include ways of preventing that delay from occurring.
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We have found few well-documented cases where management practices focusing on particular species protected under the Endangered Species Act result in direct conflict with the needs of another. It is possible that this low number stems from lack of knowledge of the ecological networks of which threatened and endangered species are part; from the fact that comparatively few species are currently listed and that recovery plans have been formulated for even fewer; and from the inadvertent protection for other listed species uncler some current recovery plans.
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ESTIMATING RISK The concept of risk is central to the implementation of the ESA. The main risks involved in the implementation of the Endangered Species Act are the risk of extinction (related to the probability of both biological and nonbiological events)
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If information on that species is lacking, information about a related species might be useful. MAKING ESA DECISIONS IN THE FACE OF UNCERTAINTY To ensure that ESA decisions protect endangered species as they are intended to in a scientifically defensible way requires objective methods for assessing risk of extinction and for assigning species to categories of protection according to that risk.
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Because the structure of hypothesis testing related to listing and jeopardy decisions can make it more likely for an endangered species to be clenied needed protection than for a nonendangered species to be protected unnecessarily, decisions under the act should be structured to take explicit account of all the types of errors that could be made and their consequences, both biological and nonbiological. The phrasing of the null hypothesis and setting of error rates should reflect societal, as well as scientific, judgments about what level of risk is acceptable for which types of errors.
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To some degree, habitat conservation plans represent an example of this approach, but it is likely that cooperative management will be necessary in cases where the strict requirements of the Endangerecl Species Act have not yet been applied. It is important to include the major interested parties without having so many interests involved that consensus is difficult to reach.
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To conserve natural habitats, approaches must be developed that rely on cooperation and innovative procedures; examples provicled for by the ESA are habitat conservation plans and natural community consecration planning. But those are only a beginning.
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Habitat alteration and degradation are probably the most severe effects humans have on other species toclay. The Endangered Species Act (ESA)
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by carrying out programs for the conservation of endangered species and threatened species." Amendments to the ESA in 1978 and later established the requirement for recovery plans to be prepared by the U.S.
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The committee's membership (see Appendix C) includes expertise in ecology; systematics; population genetics; wildlife management; risk and decision analysis; the legal, legislative, and administrative history of the Endangered Species Act; economics; and the implementation of the ESA from public and private perspectives.
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potential of the Endangered Species Act. Endangered Species Update 5:7-9.
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Introduction NRC (National Research Council)
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