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Abstract The incidental capture and mortality of endangered, threatened and protected (ETP) marine species remains a global problem. Among the most problematic fishing methods is penaeid trawling, which is responsible for one quarter of the world's discarded bycatch and remains a key threatening process to ETP species (turtles and some elasmobranchs). So-called 'turtle excluder devices' (TEDs) legislated among USA penaeid trawlers and subsequently fleets in other countries during the 1990s alleviated some concerns over impacts to ETP species, but adoption has not been global. One country characterised by resistance to TEDs is Brazil—despite federal legislation mandating usage for almost 25 years. The reasons for this deficit, reiterated here via interviews with 64 southern penaeid-trawler captains, are threefold. First, are perceived issues with mandated designs and minimal third-party expertise, leading to a sustained misconception that TEDs simply do not work in Brazilian penaeid trawls. Second, is the perpetuated belief of minimum negative impacts to ETP species; exacerbated by few quantitative data. Third, is jurisdictional failure to promote the concept that slight economic loss associated with not catching ETP species (elasmobranchs) is necessary for broader ecological sustainability. We propose TED use among Brazilian penaeid-trawl fisheries might be promoted via a co-management strategy facilitated by sustained education and technical expertise from research providers encouraging fishers to develop fishery-specific solutions. If industries can be encouraged to accept the concept of TEDs, they might then be expected to refine and develop ownership of the most appropriate configurations. Highlights • Penaeid trawlers catch threatened, protected and endangered species. • Bycatch can be resolved via technical modifications. • International laws require turtle excluder devices (TED). • Operational and educational issues preclude TED use in Brazil. • A co-management strategy will facilitate TED use in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses efforts to protect endangered species as of 2018. Particular focus is given to how spending for organisms protected under the U.S. Endangered Species act is misdirected. Additional topics discussed include how human activity is putting Canada's Woodland Caribou in danger, the negative environmental impact of the oil and gas industry, and the triage approach to endangered species protection.

This article reports on new research that finds certain messages reduce fear of sharks, key to promoting conservation-minded responses to shark bites. Here it is argued that the sophistication in public feelings toward these highly emotional events has allowed new actors to mobilize and given rise to the ‘Save the Sharks’ movement. In a unique experiment coupling randomly assigned intent-based priming messages with exposure to sharks in a ‘shark tunnel’, a potential path to reduce public fear of sharks and alter policy preferences is investigated. Priming for the absence of intent yielded significant fear extinction effects, providing a viable means of increasing support for non-lethal policy options following shark bite incidents. High levels of pride and low levels of blame for bite incidents are also found. In all, this article provides a step towards improving our understanding of fear and fear reduction in public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State wildlife conservation programs are essential to accomplishing the national goal of extinction prevention. By virtue of their constitutional powers, their expertise, and their on-the-ground personnel, states could--in theory--accomplish far more than the federal agencies directly responsible for implementing the Endangered Species Act (ESA). States plausibly argue that they can catalyze collaborative conservation that brings together key stakeholders to improve conditions for imperiled species. Bills to revise the ESA seek to delegate greater authority to states. We evaluated states' imperiled species legislation to determine their legal capacity to employ the key regulatory tools that prompt collaborative conservation. All but four states possess statutory programs to identify species on the brink of extinction. Most of them include both animals protected under the ESA and wildlife imperiled just within the boundaries of the state. Thirtyfour states legislate imperiled plant protection programs. States generally fail to prohibit habitat impairment by private parties, lack permit programs to minimize incidental harms to species and spur habitat conservation, and do not restrict state agency actions that undermine species recovery. Compared to the key regulatory programs of the ESA that prompt stakeholders to collaborate on conservation, state laws--in general--reflect a more permissive attitude. Though state laws, in the aggregate, only weakly support cooperative federalism, some state legislative provisions are very strong. Illinois, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin even go beyond the ESA in their protective measures. Major funding increases to pay for conservation measures could overcome weak agency regulatory authority, but prospects for a spending spree are dim. Therefore, some state legislative reform will be necessary to implement stronger cooperative federalism under the ESA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landowner resistance to Endangered Species Act regulations is a key conservation challenge. In 2014 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed that a mix of payments for ecosystem services and regulatory assurances be implemented to encourage cattle rancher's participation in Florida panther recovery efforts. To identify cattle rancher's preferences for the proposed programs, we implemented a best-worst scaling choice experiment. Our results suggest that voluntary conservation programs are most likely to enroll politically conservative landowners if these programs provide per acre payments or tax reductions, are of shorter duration, and do not require overly intrusive or restrictive levels of monitoring to ensure compliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent ROV surveys conducted on the Ragusa bank in the Sicily Channel (Mediterranean Sea) documented illegal and continuous use of the 'ingegno' gear for red coral fishing., Three lost gears were recorded showing different levels of epibiosis thus supporting multi-annual exploitation of the bank., The red coral population of the Ragusa bank showed a typical 'forest-like' configuration with upright, medium-sized colonies similar to those of other commercially exploited deep Mediterranean banks., The direct negative effect of this trawling gear was evident from numerous rocky boulders completely enveloped by lost nets and occasionally turned over. Red coral fragments as well as fragments of 'ingegno' nets were observed in high abundance on the sea floor. This evidence suggests that this gear is highly destructive even on rough sea floors, contrary to the traditional view, which is that it has a more random impact on rough rocky bottoms., The estimated coral uptake of 'ingegno' is 45% of the total coral biomass, while the estimated coral loss, in terms of fragments, is 9%, demonstrating the high impact of this gear., The study highlighted the infringement of the red coral fishing ban by trawling gears as well as a lack of effective policing. The strengthening of controls on landings at nearby harbours, and education programmes for the local maritime communities are among the management actions proposed to protect these surviving red coral populations from the ongoing illegal fishing activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada and the United States are both committed to the protection of endangered species. This article examines how the legal frameworks created around the USEndangered Species Act(ESA) and the CanadianSpecies at Risk Act(SARA) intersect with Indigenous environmental justice (EJ). Specifically, the distribution of benefits and burdens is examined since critical habitat designations can limit activity on Native American and First Nation tribal lands. Legal documents and recent court cases also give insight into Indigenous inclusion and recognition in conservation approaches in North America. Overall, it is argued that Canada’s approach comes closer to EJ, but neither legal framework meets the criterion of genuine EJ for Native Americans and First Nations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Two federal policies—the protection of endangered species, and the rapid creation of a renewable energy infrastructure—currently exist in significant legal tension. While both are important for the development of necessary sustainability, climate change induced by the continuous burning of carbon-based fuels likely poses a greater threat to endangered species than does the growth of commercial-scale renewable energy sites. This article outlines several points of conflict between the two policies and subsequently considers the extent to which federal agencies responsible for renewable energy oversight and development possesswiggle roomunder the Endangered Species Act. A few recommendations for greater leeway are then offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following censure by the European Court of Justice on 09 June 2011 (Case C-383/09) for failing to provide sufficient protection for the common hamster (Cricetus cricetus, Linn. 1758) on its territory, the French government, in concert with local stakeholders, has endeavoured to enact measures to prevent the localised extinction of this species in France. Although the common hamster has a wide distribution in Europe, in France it is restricted to a tiny pocket west of the Rhine in Alsace (representing the westernmost tip of its range). With an uncommitted official administration, saving a species with a history of causing significant agricultural damage was always going to prove challenging. However, as a species strongly tied to agriculture, the common hamster has the potential to highlight the problems of intensive farming practices for biodiversity in this region and thereby promote more sustainable alternatives. The story of the conservation effort for common hamsters in Alsace has lessons for other species and areas, perhaps not in terms of the approach used, but with regard to the difficulties that must be overcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States Endangered Species Act (ESA) was enacted to protect and restore declining fish, wildlife, and plant populations. The ESA mandates endangered species protection irrespective of costs. This translates to the restriction of activities that harm endangered populations. We discuss criticisms of the ESA in the context of public land management and examine under what circumstance banning non-conservation activity on multiple use federal lands can be socially optimal. We develop a bioeconomic model to frame the species management problem under the ESA and identify scenarios where ESA-imposed regulations emerge as optimal strategies. Results suggest that banning harmful activities is a preferred strategy when valued endangered species are in decline or exposed to poor habitat quality. However, it is not optimal to sustain such a strategy in perpetuity. An optimal plan involves a switch to land-use practices characteristic of habitat conservation plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rhacophorus pseudomalabaricus is a Critically Endangered, range-restricted frog found in the southern Western Ghats of India. We report new distribution records outside the protected area network in the Cardamom Hills of Kerala State through direct sightings and local ecological knowledge. These records increase the distribution by 12 km to the south-east of its currently known range and increase the altitudinal range of the species to 1600 m asl. We present a preliminary call analysis of the species that is distinct from the call of its nearest congener R. malabaricus. Foam nests, tadpoles and metamorphs were sighted in agricultural land suggesting the importance of these landscapes for breeding. Breeding continues into the month of November extending the known length of its breeding season. Breeding occurred in highly disturbed areas and oviposition sites varied according to the vegetation around breeding sites and included the use of non-native plants. This suggests the need to exercise caution while conducting habitat restoration programs that involve a standard removal of non-native plants. The IUCN Red List status for this species could be revised from 'Critically Endangered' to 'Endangered' in light of our findings. Local ecological knowledge on amphibians could provide supplementary information on distinct species with local names and those that have short periods of activity, which may not be frequently encountered during field surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disease was a listing criterion for the polar bear ( Ursus maritimus) as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2008; it is therefore important to evaluate the current state of knowledge and identify any information gaps pertaining to diseases in polar bears. We conducted a systematic literature review focused on infectious agents and associated health impacts identified in polar bears. Overall, the majority of reports in free-ranging bears concerned serosurveys or fecal examinations with little to no information on associated health effects. In contrast, most reports documenting illness or pathology referenced captive animals and diseases caused by etiologic agents not representative of exposure opportunities in wild bears. As such, most of the available infectious disease literature has limited utility as a basis for development of future health assessment and management plans. Given that ecological change is a considerable risk facing polar bear populations, future work should focus on cumulative effects of multiple stressors that could impact polar bear population dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the effort of Department of Defense (DoD) to protect animals that thrives near and inside military bases in the U.S. Topics discussed include their effort to integrate local communities for protection of animals and habitats, the import for military officials to comply with Endangered Species Act (ESA), and the need for federal entities to support DoD's animal conservation efforts.

The article investigates how national and international measures to protect wolves turned the whole of Norway into a field of study for wildlife biologists, and how the extensiveness of this 'field' prompted a transformation in the methods employed to count and monitor wolves. As it was not possible to conduct traditional field studies throughout the whole of Norway, the biologists constructed an extensive infrastructure, which I have termed a 'counting complex,' in order to count wolves from a distance. The article identifies three decisive periods in the construction of this complex: the 1960s, the 1980s, and the first decade of the new millennium. During the first two periods, biologists used the infrastructure to mobilize ordinary people's observations; they did this by first searching through newspaper notes, then enrolling people more directly through local committees of game management. However, the public's observations often turned out to be unreliable, and, in the 2000s, molecular biologists helped to incorporate genetic techniques into the counting complex. By using the infrastructure to mobilize wolf scat, rather than observations, and by constructing DNA profiles for individual wolves, the molecular biologists enabled research that I have termed 'nationwide field studies in absentia.' The article argues that the biologists' main motive for constructing and refining the counting complex was to make wolves amenable to government, as they considered this a vital premise for the successful practice of protecting wolves. The increased intensity in monitoring in the last period, however, was also driven by international conventions and detailed regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kittlitz's Murrelet (Brachyramphus brevirostris) has been proposed for listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, and is classified as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). A significant portion of the global population occurs in Glacier Bay, Alaska, where steep population declines have been previously reported. To further examine Kittlitz's Murrelet population trends we replicated a 1993 survey in 2009 and 2010 using the same lead observer, the same transect lines, and similar methods. We found the number of Kittlitz's Murrelets unchanged since 1993. Other seabird surveys were conducted in Glacier Bay between 1991 and 2008 by federal agencies, using a variety of sampling designs. We added our surveys to previously published surveys, correcting for percentage of murrelets identified to species to enable comparison. When all surveys were analyzed collectively, the Kittlitz's Murrelet population showed no significant trend between 1991 and 2010 (P=0.51). A power analysis showed high power (>0.99) to detect a decline had the population truly been declining at a rate of -11% per year, allowing us to reject the prior published conclusion of decline rates of -10.7% to -14.4% per year in Glacier Bay. The prior result of murrelet population decline was driven by a high population estimate from an isolated, nonstandard survey in 1991. Our three surveys in 1993, 2009, and 2010 provide a direct long-term comparison of standardized surveys, and show a more comprehensive picture of the Kittlitz's Murrelet population trend in Glacier Bay. We suggest the previous conclusion of a declining trend was influenced by anchoring bias, which attached undue certainty to the initial observation. The revised population trend in Glacier Bay indicates Kittlitz's Murrelets are not at imminent risk of extinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the increase in urban biodiversity conservation and habitat restoration projects. The role of urban biodiversity in climate change response, provision of ecosystem services, and synanthropic species adaptation is discussed. Examples of urban biodiversity initiatives include sustainable development and green space development in Stockholm and Malmo, Sweden, the establishment of nature reserves in Singapore, and endangered species protection and ecological restoration in New York City. It is also noted that the impact of Hurricane Sandy on the New York-New Jersey region in 2012 highlighted the importance of coastal wetland conservation. INSET: Box 1. The Urban Barcode Project: Students get a taste of....

We analyzed whether decision-making triggers increase accountability of adaptive-management plans. Triggers are prenegotiated commitments in an adaptive-management plan that specify what actions are to be taken and when on the basis of information obtained from monitoring. Triggers improve certainty that particular actions will be taken by agencies in the future. We conducted an in-depth, qualitative review of the political and legal contexts of adaptive management and its application by U.S. federal agencies. Agencies must satisfy the judiciary that adaptive-management plans meet substantive legal standards and comply with the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act. We examined 3 cases in which triggers were used in adaptive-management plans: salmon (Oncorhynchus spp. ) in the Columbia River, oil and gas development by the Bureau of Land Management, and a habitat conservation plan under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. In all the cases, key aspects of adaptive management, including controls and preidentified feedback loops, were not incorporated in the plans. Monitoring and triggered mitigation actions were limited in their enforceability, which was contingent on several factors, including which laws applied in each case and the degree of specificity in how triggers were written into plans. Other controversial aspects of these plans revolved around who designed, conducted, interpreted, and funded monitoring programs. Additional contentious issues were the level of precaution associated with trigger mechanisms and the definition of ecological baselines used as points of comparison. Despite these challenges, triggers can be used to increase accountability, by predefining points at which an adaptive management plan will be revisited and reevaluated, and thus improve the application of adaptive management in its complicated political and legal context. Detonadores de la Toma de Decisiones en el Manejo Adaptativo [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semi-natural grasslands are increasingly grazed by large herbivores for nature conservation purposes. For many insects such grazing is essential for the conservation of their habitat, but at the same time, populations decrease at high grazing intensity. We hypothesised that grazing management may cause increased butterfly mortality, especially for life-stages with low mobility, such as hibernating caterpillars. To test this, we measured the effect of sheep grazing on overwinter larval survival. We used the Glanville fritillary ( Melitaea cinxia), which has gregarious caterpillars hibernating in silk nests, as a model species. Caterpillar nests were monitored throughout the hibernating period in calcareous grassland reserves with low and high intensity sheep grazing and in an ungrazed control treatment. After grazing, 64 % of the nests at the high intensity grazing treatment were damaged or missing, compared to 8 and 12 % at the ungrazed and low intensity grazing treatment, respectively. Nest volume and caterpillar survival were 50 % lower at the high intensity grazing treatment compared to both ungrazed and low intensity grazing treatments. Nest damage and increased mortality were mainly caused by incidental ingestion of the caterpillars by the sheep. It is likely that grazing similarly affects other invertebrates, depending on their location within the vegetation and their ability to actively avoid herbivores. This implies that the impact of grazing strongly depends on the timing of this management in relation to the phenology of the species. A greater focus on immature and inactive life-stages in conservation policy in general and particularly in action plans for endangered species is required to effectively preserve invertebrate diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With few exceptions, the US Endangered Species Act requires the designation of "critical habitat" for threatened and endangered species. This provides important protections, including a prohibition against adverse modification of designated habitat by federal agencies. Scientists with the US Fish and Wildlife Service develop critical habitat designations, which are then peer reviewed before being finalized by the secretary of the interior. We reviewed 169 peer reviews of 42 designations for 336 species finalized between 2002 and 2007 and determined whether there were changes in the area designated and whether those changes reflected the reviewers' advice. Thirty-four (81%) of the 42 designations were reduced by an average of 43%. Eighty-five of the reviews recommended adding areas, and 19 recommended subtracting areas. Areas were added in response to only four reviews and subtracted in response to only nine. These results highlight the limitations of peer review of government decisions, which lack an arbiter to ensure that reviews are adequately considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides an overview of Canada's 2002 Species at Risk Act (SARA), passed by Parliament to better conform to the United Nation's Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD) which Canada signed in 1993. Article 8(j) of the UNCBD requires that participating nations maintain and preserve traditional knowledge and conservation practices of indigenous peoples. An analysis is presented of SARA to see if it meets the Article 8(j) requirements of the UNCBD, which also notes that Canadian federal laws only apply to federal lands, since provincial governments hold authority over their own natural resources.

In 2010 the US declared the Lake Erie water snake a recovered species, but in Canada the snake is still considered to be an endangered species. After explaining the legal similarities between the Ontario Endangered Species Act and the American Endangered Species Act, this article examines a case study with landowner interviews from one US island and one Canadian island. It is concluded that landowner attitudes toward conservation and private property are very similar. Thus, it is argued that bureaucratic differences, particularly institutional capacity and implementation styles, enabled the US but not Canada to recover the snake. The article concludes with a discussion of the need for better communication between the two countries for the purposes of biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Large fish species are at high risk of extinction because of life cycle characteristics and migratory fishes are often vulnerable to river modifications and overexploitation. The freshwater fish family Cyprinidae has the highest diversity in species, varied morphological and behavioral properties, and a wide range of habitat requirements. This study included an analysis of the conservation attention on large, migratory cyprinid species, a summary of threats jeopardizing the endangered species in this group, and a case study on little known species from northwest China. About 1% of all cyprinid species exceed 1 m in total length, and most of these fishes have migratory behaviors. Most of these species (79%) have not been evaluated for conservation attention, and a minor portion that have been evaluated were considered endangered. The threats to large migratory cyprinids include all the common threats to freshwater biodiversity: overexploitation, habitat alteration, water pollution, flow modification, and species invasion. The first two threats explain most of the decline in abundance and range of large, migratory cyprinids, and the others are sometimes important. The case of the Xinjiang datou fish ( Aspiorhynchus laticeps) illustrates how an impressive species can be lost without much scientific or public attention. The analysis of conservation attention, threats, and the case study support the conclusion that large, migratory cyprinids are not receiving conservation efforts that should be focused on fish species that are especially vulnerable to human impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active adaptive management is the centerpiece of a major species recovery program now underway on the central Platte River in Nebraska. The Platte River Recovery Implementation Program initiated on January 1, 2007 and is a joint effort between the states of Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska; the U.S. Department of the Interior; waters users; and conservation groups. This program is intended to address issues related to endangered species and loss of habitat along the Platte River in central Nebraska by managing land and water resources and using adaptive management as its science framework. The adaptive management plan provides a systematic process to test hypotheses and apply the information learned to improve management on the ground, and is centered on conceptual models and priority hypotheses that reflect different interpretations of how river processes work and the best approach to meeting key objectives. This framework reveals a shared attempt to use the best available science to implement experiments, learn, and revise management actions accordingly on the Platte River. This paper focuses on the status of adaptive management implementation on the Platte, experimental and habitat design issues, and the use of decision analysis tools to help set objectives and guide decisions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses the history of relations between humans and crocodiles in the Philippines. It examines attitudes toward the crocodile in pre-colonial times, in the period of Spanish colonialism, and in the modern era. The modern discussion focuses on the authors' fieldwork in the northern Sierra Madre region of the Philippines and notes the views of the indigenous Agta and Kalinga peoples. Attitudes of fear of and reverence for crocodiles are explored. Other topics include social change and governmental policy toward the endangered Philippine crocodile.

1. The marsh fritillary Euphydryas aurinia is one of our most endangered butterflies, and the only to be protected under European legislation as well as British. It persists in fragile subpopulations threatened by habitat fragmentation and degradation. 2. A combination of swaling and cattle grazing are accepted to be best practice for managing wet, unimproved grasslands-the favoured habitat for E. aurinia in Cornwall. These two well-endorsed methods of management were used to increase and improve the quality of habitat for E. aurinia over a 5 years period, 2004-2008, at a stronghold network of habitat patches in mid Cornwall, south-west England. 3. Analyses of adult and larval densities over 5 years in fifty-four transects across nine sites found E. aurinia to favour habitat patches with higher densities of the larval food plant (Devil's-bit scabious Succisa pratensis), higher sward height in autumn, and intermediate optimum levels of stock grazing. 4. Main findings indicated most sites experienced significant declines in numbers. Unfavourable weather in the last 2 years of monitoring was likely to have had a significant impact on the response of individual subpopulations to habitat management though poor recovery rates may also reflect a time-lag in colonisation events after habitat improvement has occurred. 5. Habitat management produced an improvement, albeit an inconsistent improvement in habitat variables across patches- S. pratensis shows a clear recovery at some sites. Autumn sward height increased significantly at one site, and a quadratic relationship between stock grazing and important habitat variables has been found which will aid further improvement over all sites for the long term persistence of E. aurinia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Butterflies and moths have undergone a serious decline in most European countries following rapid changes in land use in recent decades. The main drivers of loss have been agricultural and forestry intensification, abandonment of marginal land (especially in mountainous regions), loss of traditional management of grasslands and woodlands, and urban spread. Over the same period the science and practice of Lepidoptera conservation has developed considerably and concerted action to save biodiversity has been taken in many countries, with vast areas designated as nature reserves or national parks. Despite this effort, Lepidoptera are still declining at an alarming rate and it is clear that the 2010 target of halting biodiversity loss will not be met. We suggest ten challenges that conservationists in Europe need to address if we are to be successful in halting these losses over coming decades. In this continent, Lepidoptera and their habitats often rely on traditional farming and forestry systems. How can these be brought together in harmony to create a healthier environment in which both humans and wildlife can thrive? The ten challenges include reform of agricultural support, identifying and supporting beneficial forestry systems, managing the matrix between habitats, managing habitats on a landscape scale, mitigating for climate change, creating a robust planning system that protects key sites, developing a comprehensive monitoring programme for Europe, securing long term funding for nature conservation, and ensuring both political and public support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Article explores recent court rulings concerning how the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service (Services) specify the level of "take" anticipated in their formal consultation decisions and how these rulings provide a much needed impetus and incentive for the Services to track the `status and cumulative take of species listed under the Endangered Species Act. This Article argues that consistent with the findings of the Government Accountability Office's 2009 Report, the Services must implement a systematic means for tracking the monitoring reports required by the Services in their consultation decisions as well as a systematic program for tracking the cumulative take of all listed species. This Article further argues that the tracking of monitoring reports and the tracking of cumulative take should not be discrete tasks reserved for the Services. By utilizing several different pro visions of the Act, the Services can harness federal, state, and private entities to assist the Services in achieving a comprehensive approach to monitoring and tracking take. An integrated, interagency approach may facilitate the development of these tracking programs and yield a more comprehensive, informed, and proactive approach to endangered species conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protecting endangered species that offer poachers from low-income countries high economic benefits remains a policy challenge. A broadly applicable economic model of poaching shows why CITES international bans have not always been successful, especially in situations where black markets exist and nonpoaching wages are low. In these situations, poachers may have nothing left to lose, since low nonpoaching wages impose a practical cap on the potential economic costs of fines and imprisonment. Thus, the model suggests “shoot-on-sight” policies as the only viable option. Trends in animal populations appear to support the efficacy of the shoot-on-sight policies, which also suggests an inherent value of life traditionally not captured in Value of a Statistical Life estimates. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The expansion of outside, particularly state, control into rural areas through policies designed to protect and serve endangered wildlife has found increasing significance within studies on human-wildlife conflicts. This article expands the scope of these investigations by forwarding a case study from Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, in southwest Uganda, of a thriving protected area whose continued success has necessitated its expansion into privately owned land. I argue that such encroachment represents a new form of control, namely, through the dispossession of private property via conservation policies that not only restrict rural farmers from responding to incidents of crop raiding but also prevent local communities from accessing their own land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While one primary goal of the Endangered Species Act is to prevent the global extinction of species, it is less clear whether the Act is intended, and can be used, to protect species that are endangered solely within the United States. Although the global preservation of species may be sufficient to achieve many of the goals of the Endangered Species Act, some goals may only be completely served by `ensuring that certain populations of species occur within the United States, even if the animals are abundant elsewhere. The current Distinct Population Segment Policy being used by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service to determine whether to list domestic populations of species as threatened or endangered only allows the agencies to protect these population segments if they are significant to the species' taxon as a whole. This Note argues that this policy should be changed because there are many compelling reasons to protect domestic populations of particular species, even if these species are abundant elsewhere, and suggests criteria that should be used to determine whether a particular population segment should be protected, including the species' conservation status and importance to the American people. It also demonstrates that this proposal would be consistent with the goals of the Endangered Species Act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"As If Equity Mattered" was the theme of the 2009 Berkeley symposium that resulted in the articles collected in this issue of the Natural Resources Journal. In this article we argue that for some aspects of natural resource policy, equity already matters a great deal. The challenge is understanding how policymakers and citizens deal with conflicting ideas about equity in a given policy context. This article considers the role of conflicting equity norms in public policy, with special attention to the protection of endangered species on private lands. After a brief review of the limited attention to norms and normative conflict in dominant understandings of the policy process, we review the role of two important normative ideas in endangered species conservation: an intrinsic norm of ownership as an individual right subject only to limited government interference, and an intrinsic normative duty to prevent extinction, regardless of a species' utility or practical value. Tracing the prominence of these norms in endangered species policy back to the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973, we document in more detail the broad support for both ideas of "equity" among current private landowners affected by endangered species regulations in several locations across the United States. Our conclusion is that both norms remain highly salient, if in some tension, leaving many landowners with strong views about property rights receptive to the idea of cooperative efforts to protect species on private land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assisted colonization could help prevent the extinction of threatened and endangered species by intentionally moving a species to a region where it has not occurred in the recent past, but should survive under future climate scenarios. Where species are naturally localized and confined to patchy habitats, assisted colonization might be the only means for population dispersal across human landscape barriers such as urban and agriculture areas. The major risk associated with assisted colonization is introducing ecologically harmful species. Previous policy papers have described management options for deciding when to move a species to mitigate for climate change. We build on this previous work by examining management options and policy solutions for assisted colonization under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). On its surface, the ESA statutory language appears to provide the legal framework for allowing assisted colonization, as the U.S. Congress gave the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) broad discretion to manage populations of endangered species. However, current USFWS regulations are an impediment to assisted colonization for many endangered animal species, whereas regulations do not necessarily restrict assisted colonization of endangered plants. Because of this discrepancy, we recommend a review of the regulatory language governing movements of endangered species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents news items on environmental issues. The Western Australian government has decided to place woylies, which are a distant relative of the kangaroo on the country's critically endangered list. Research from the University of Southampton in England suggests that even if atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide stabilize, long term rises in sea levels across the globe could greatly exceed current projections.

In Florida Key Deer v. Paulison, the Eleventh Circuit held that federal agencies cannot meet the Endangered Species Act's (ESA's) command to "carry[] out programs for the conservation of endangered species" with programs of "insignificant effect. "Since the enactment of the ESA, courts have taken a variety of approaches to this requirement, which is found in section 7(a)(1) of the ESA. While some prior interpretations have rendered section 7(a)(1) effectively unenforceable, the Florida Key Deer decision belongs to a line of cases that reads meaningful procedural requirements into the section. Although the Eleventh Circuit has made an important contribution to the jurisprudence of ESA section 7(a)(1) by establishing a "significant effect" benchmark for compliance, this Note argues that effective conservation programs cannot be implemented as the result of litigation alone. The ESA's goals cannot be realized without executive leadership because of the unique competencies of the executive branch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the case of the Center for Biological Diversity versus Fish and Game Commission in the U.S. The case involved the listing of the California Tiger Salamander as a candidate species as ordered by the state Court of Appeal. The California Endangered Species Act required that the Commission list a species as endangered when it is in serious danger of becoming extinct throughout all, or a significant portion, of its range.

Southern California desert public lands receive especially high levels of off-highway recreation due to large population centers nearby and popular riding environments such as sand dunes. Controversy has developed over the flat-tailed horned lizard ( Phrynosoma mcallii), previously a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act. Some evidence suggests lower lizard abundance in areas of higher recreational use than in areas with low or no use. We designed a manipulative experiment to ensure maximum inference in evaluating the direct impact of recreational riding of off-highway vehicles on lizards. Thirty-six lizards, in situ, were treated with an off-highway vehicle treatment during hibernation season in three treatment groups: high impact, low impact, and control. Treatments consisted of timed riding by off-highway vehicles. In all treatment groups survival was 100%, despite hibernation of lizards at very shallow depths. Consequently, indirect effects of off-highway vehicles deserve increased attention. The relative importance of direct versus indirect (i.e., degradation of lizard habitat) impacts caused by off-highway vehicles remains unknown. These indirect effects may include the altering of vegetation, substrate, and prey. We recommend that a manipulative approach be adopted to investigate these possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the worldwide harvest, and conservation of the Scleropages formosus popularly known as Asian arowana, which is a multi-billion dollar industry in Cambodia. It notes that CITES prohibited the commercial international trade of the S. formosus because it belongs to the endangered species. Furthermore, to collect information on the reproduction, harvest and trade, and population trends of S. formosus, interviews with 62 local villagers were conducted. Data show that the breeding season of S. formosus begins towards the end of the dry season in Cambodia, and lasts for approximately 3 months.

The article discusses a public-policy forecasting audit for polar bear population forecasting. In 2005, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) placed the polar bear on the threatened species list under the Endangered Species Act. The author states that a factor in the decreasing number of polar bears is that sea ice is receding. The article also discusses the debate that argues the decision to place polar bears on the list was delayed to avoid obstructing the sales of oil and gas leases.

Calls to list polar bears as a threatened species under the United States Endangered Species Act are based on forecasts of substantial long-term declines in their population. Nine government reports were written to help US Fish and Wildlife Service managers decide whether or not to list polar bears as a threatened species. We assessed these reports based on evidence-based (scientific) forecasting principles. None of the reports referred to sources of scientific forecasting methodology. Of the nine, Amstrup et al. [Amstrup, S. C., B. G. Marcot, D. C. Douglas. 2007. Forecasting the rangewide status of polar bears at selected times in the 21st century. Administrative Report, USGS Alaska Science Center, Anchorage, AK.] and Hunter et al. [Hunter, C. M., H. Caswell, M. C. Runge, S. C. Amstrup, E. V. Regehr, I. Stirling. 2007. Polar bears in the Southern Beaufort Sea II: Demography and population growth in relation to sea ice conditions. Administrative Report, USGS Alaska Science Center, Anchorage, AK.] were the most relevant to the listing decision, and we devoted our attention to them. Their forecasting procedures depended on a complex set of assumptions, including the erroneous assumption that general circulation models provide valid forecasts of summer sea ice in the regions that polar bears inhabit. Nevertheless, we audited their conditional forecasts of what would happen to the polar bear population assuming, as the authors did, that the extent of summer sea ice would decrease substantially during the coming decades. We found that Amstrup et al. properly applied 15 percent of relevant forecasting principles and Hunter et al. 10 percent. Averaging across the two papers, 46 percent of the principles were clearly contravened and 23 percent were apparently contravened. Consequently, their forecasts are unscientific and inconsequential to decision makers. We recommend that researchers apply all relevant principles properly when important public-policy decisions depend on their forecasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the variations in information policy challenges which result from different type of environmental law in the U.S. It discusses some regulatory approaches and legislative attributes that differentiate various types of environmental law. It explores the information gap between what science provides and what courts demand in settling cases on harm prohibition under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The author states that the differences among subject matters, regulatory styles and legal authorities have effect on enforcing such law.

California's experience implementing species protection laws illustrates both the necessity and challenges of articulating those policies with land use policies. Species protection increasingly relies on habitat protection achieved through land use controls. However, species protection policies are not well articulated with land use policies. The causes of this separation include a conceptual divide in theoretical orientation, different approaches to uncertainty in policy implementation and inadequate policy instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the active literature on regulatory reinvention, many have pointed to the Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) program of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) as a successful example of the potential for collaborative and experimentalist regulatory innovation. Yet, despite its frequent mention as a prototype for fostering public participation and adaptive decisionrnaking, no thorough, systematic evaluation of the program as a form of regulatory innovation exists. By integrating data from recent scientific studies, interviews and surveys of agency officials, newspaper investigations, and even unpublished biological databases, this Article serves as the first cross-disciplinary, comprehensive assessment of this pioneering but ultimately defective program. The Article demonstrates that though a few HCPs have served as truly promising examples of the value of broad participation and adaptation in regulation, the HCP program as implemented largely allows for the proliferation of private, ill-considered agreements between agencies and developers that evade the ESA's otherwise strict prohibitions. More fundamentally, the Article contends that the HCP regulatory experiment is failing because the agencies charged with administering it have never seriously treated it like an experiment. Regulatory programs must themselves be periodically and systematically monitored for agencies to learn from and adjust to regulatory mistakes and successes. As the legislative and executive branches yet again contemplate amending the ESA, the HCP program serves as a crucial lesson in regulatory design. Only by assiduously attending to the incentives of both agency personnel and applicants in order to cultivate meaningful participation and systematic regulatory adaptation can the HCP program—and indeed any regulatory program—ever evolve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]