scholarly journals A Monitoring Policy Framework for the United States Endangered Species Act

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meg Evansen ◽  
Jacob Malcom ◽  
Andrew Carter
Keyword(s):  
Endangered Species ◽  
Endangered Species Act ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Effectiveness Monitoring ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Status ◽  
Conservation Actions ◽  
Compliance With The Law ◽  
The U.S

Biodiversity is deteriorating at a global level as human actions like development, overexploitation, climate change, pollution, and other factors have led to a dramatic increase in the rate of extinction. The U.S. Endangered Species Act is considered one of the strongest laws in the world for protecting wildlife, but its effectiveness depends on proper implementation. Despite the importance of ensuring such proper implementation, the agencies that implement the Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (FWS and NMFS; Collectively, the Services) have no systematic monitoring policy to allow such evaluation. This lack of monitoring means the Services cannot accurately evaluate the success of recovery actions, make effective listing, delisting, and downlisting decisions, which can not only put species at risk for further decline, but also result in the misallocation of oftentimes scarce conservation funding. We posit that the absence of a monitoring policy has led to the lack of comprehensive systems to monitor and report on: a) compliance with the law, b) the effectiveness of conservation actions, or c) the state of listed species populations or the status of their threats. To help address this gap, we drafted a monitoring policy that covers (1) biological monitoring; (2) threats monitoring; (3) compliance monitoring; (4) effectiveness monitoring; and (5) investment analysis. The need for increased transparency within and outside the Services; accommodating emerging technologies; and addressing the need for detailed qualitative and quantitative data are considered in this proposal. This blueprint provides a starting point for more detailed monitoring policy and guidance that can help ensure efficient and effective implementation of the ESA and lead to better conservation outcomes for imperiled species.

scholarly journals Extinction and the U.S. Endangered Species Act

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noah Greenwald ◽  
Kieran F Suckling ◽  
Brett Hartl ◽  
Loyal Mehrhoff
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Endangered Species ◽  
Endangered Species Act ◽  
The United States ◽  
Species Extinction ◽  
Number Of Species ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Species Extinctions

The United States Endangered Species Act is one of the strongest laws of any nation for preventing species extinction, but quantifying the Act’s effectiveness has proven difficult. To provide one measure of effectiveness, we identified listed species that have gone extinct and used previously developed methods to update an estimate of the number of species extinctions prevented by the Act. To date, only four species have been confirmed extinct with another 22 possibly extinct following protection. Another 71 listed species are extinct or possibly extinct, but were last seen before protections were enacted, meaning the Act’s protections never had the opportunity to save these species. In contrast, a total of 39 species have been fully recovered, including 23 in the last 10 years. We estimate the Endangered Species Act has prevented the extinction of roughly 291 species since passage in 1973, and has to date saved more than 99 percent of species under its protection.

scholarly journals Better Representation Is Needed in U.S. Endangered Species Act Implementation

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Malcom ◽  
Andrew Carter
Keyword(s):  
Endangered Species ◽  
Endangered Species Act ◽  
The United States ◽  
Alternative Interpretation ◽  
Gray Wolf ◽  
Picoides Borealis ◽  
Ecological Communities ◽  
Science And Policy ◽  
Threatened And Endangered Species ◽  
The U.S

In the United States, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service uses the concepts of resilience, redundancy, and representation—often known as the “3Rs”—to guide implementation of the Endangered Species Act, which requires the U.S. government to designate imperiled species as threatened or endangered, and take action to recover them. The Service has done little, however, to relate the 3Rs to the statutory requirements of the Act. Here we focus on interpreting the concept of representation given core tenets of science and conservation policy. We show that the Service's current interpretation, which focuses on a narrow set of characteristics intrinsic to species that facilitate future adaptation, falls far short of a reasonable interpretation from the scientific literature and other policy, and has significant consequences for the conservation of threatened and endangered species, including those found in other countries. To illustrate the shortcomings in practice, we discuss the cases of the Lower 48 gray wolf (Canis lupus) delisting, the proposed Red-cockadedWoodpecker (Picoides borealis) downlisting, and the possible downlisting of the Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis). We then propose an alternative interpretation of representation that accommodates the Service's narrow interpretation and broadens it to include the importance of intraspecific variation for its own sake as well as extrinsic characteristics such as a species' role in ecological communities. We argue that this interpretation better reflects the intent of the Endangered Species Act, the best available science, and policy needs for conserving imperiled wildlife, all of which recognize the importance not only of preventing global extinction but also of preventing ecological extinction and extirpation across significant portions of a species' range.

scholarly journals Extinction and the U.S. Endangered Species Act

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noah Greenwald ◽  
Kieran F Suckling ◽  
Brett Hartl ◽  
Loyal Mehrhoff
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Endangered Species ◽  
Endangered Species Act ◽  
The United States ◽  
Species Extinction ◽  
Number Of Species ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Species Extinctions

The United States Endangered Species Act is one of the strongest laws of any nation for preventing species extinction, but quantifying the Act’s effectiveness has proven difficult. To provide one measure of effectiveness, we identified listed species that have gone extinct and used previously developed methods to update an estimate of the number of species extinctions prevented by the Act. To date, only five species have been confirmed extinct with another 22 possibly extinct following protection. Another 71 listed species are extinct or possibly extinct, but were last seen before protections were enacted, meaning the Act’s protections never had the opportunity to save these species. In contrast, a total of 39 species have been fully recovered, including 23 in the last 10 years. We estimate the Endangered Species Act has prevented the extinction of roughly 465 species since passage in 1973, and has to date saved more than 99 percent of species under its protection.

scholarly journals Extinction and the U.S. Endangered Species Act

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noah Greenwald ◽  
Kieran F Suckling ◽  
Brett Hartl ◽  
Loyal Mehrhoff
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Endangered Species ◽  
Endangered Species Act ◽  
The United States ◽  
Species Extinction ◽  
Number Of Species ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Species Extinctions

The United States Endangered Species Act is one of the strongest laws of any nation for preventing species extinction, but quantifying the Act’s effectiveness has proven difficult. To provide one measure of effectiveness, we identified listed species that have gone extinct and used previously developed methods to update an estimate of the number of species extinctions prevented by the Act. To date, only four species have been confirmed extinct with another 22 possibly extinct following protection. Another 71 listed species are extinct or possibly extinct, but were last seen before protections were enacted, meaning the Act’s protections never had the opportunity to save these species. In contrast, a total of 39 species have been fully recovered, including 23 in the last 10 years. We estimate the Endangered Species Act has prevented the extinction of roughly 291 species since passage in 1973, and has to date saved more than 99 percent of species under its protection.

Biological Criteria for Definition of Species and Distinct Intraspecific Populations of Anadromous Salmonids Under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973

1981 ◽  
Vol 38 (12) ◽  
pp. 1626-1635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred M. Utter
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Rainbow Trout ◽  
Endangered Species ◽  
Genetic Data ◽  
Endangered Species Act ◽  
The United States ◽  
Salmo Gairdneri ◽  
Biological Species Concept ◽  
Isolated Populations ◽  
The U.S

The validity of most recognized species of salmonids under the biological species concept is supported by evidence from diverse sources. However, the specific status of a number of recently diverged populations remains uncertain. In the United States, it is particularly important to consider the possibility of unrecognized reproductively isolated populations for protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA).Innate life history differences among species as well as numerous uncertainties within species preclude the use of a generalized model based on homing as the sole or primary means of defining discrete population segments of anadromous salmonid species. A process involving successive samplings, analyses, and syntheses of data from populations of a particular area is suggested. A major requirement of this process is reliable genetic data. The capability for the detection of allelic proteins by electrophoretic methods has provided a major tool for identifying and measuring genetic differences among populations and species. These data are necessary, but often insufficient for identifying most population segments and must be complemented by other biological and life history data as well as by historical and geological information. Provisional classifications of threatened or endangered populations on the basis of incomplete data may be necessary in many instances, but final classifications should depend on complete sets of data.Transplanted and hatchery populations complicate the identification and management of anadromous salmonid populations under the ESA. Some evidence is cited that indicates a potential or actual adverse genetic effect of hatchery or transplanted fish on some native populations, and current studies designed to measure such effects are mentioned. The technical and economical feasibility for measuring these effects suggest that such measurements should be a requisite for new or extended transplantation and hatchery operations.Further data are needed to determine whether or not threatened or endangered species and populations can be artificially perpetuated and still retain the capability to adapt to wild environments upon reintroduction to native habitats. This capability apparently exists in some domesticated strains of rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri). However, large differences exist in the intrinsic levels of genetic variation between most domesticated populations of rainbow trout and many threatened or endangered natural populations of salmonids.Key words: criteria, intraspecific, anadromous salmonid populations, genetic data

scholarly journals A monitoring policy framework for the United States Endangered Species Act

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 031001
Author(s):  
Megan Evansen ◽  
Andrew Carter ◽  
Jacob Malcom
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Endangered Species ◽  
Endangered Species Act ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Framework

International Human Rights Law

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aryeh Neier
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
The Status ◽  
Civilized Society ◽  
The U.S

This chapter focuses on the two sources of international law: custom and treaties. Customary international law is the term used to describe rules that are so widely accepted and so deeply held that they help to define what it means to belong to a civilized society. The question of whether customary international law is binding on the United States came before the U.S. Supreme Court as long ago as 1900 in a case called Paquete Habana. Whereas treaty law often covers the same ground as customary international law. Torture is forbidden by customary international law, for example, and prohibitions against torture are also set forth in several multilateral treaties. The effect is to reinforce recognition that a particular norm set forth in a treaty has the status of customary law.

Implications of OPA 90 in General and Its Effect on the T-AO 187 Class Oilers in Particular

1994 ◽  
Vol 31 (03) ◽  
pp. 175-182
Author(s):  
Hans Hofmann ◽  
George Kapsilis ◽  
Eric Smith ◽  
Robert Wasalaski
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
The United States ◽  
Coast Guard ◽  
International Maritime Organization ◽  
The Status ◽  
Oil Tankers ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Hull Construction

The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 has mandated that by the year 2015 all oil tankers operating in waters subject to jurisdiction of the United States must have double hulls. This paper examines the Act and the status of regulatory initiatives it has generated. Guidance for new hull construction and retrofit of existing vessels is outlined, and both IMO (International Maritime Organization) and U.S. Coast Guard requirements are discussed. Finally, the structural changes necessary to convert the U.S. Navy's T-AO Class oil tankers to meet the requirements of the Act are specified and illustrated.

International Human Rights Law

2020 ◽  
pp. 94-116
Author(s):  
Aryeh Neier
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
The Status ◽  
Civilized Society ◽  
The U.S

This chapter discusses custom and treaties as the two sources of international law. It explains the customary international law as the term used to describe rules that are widely accepted and deeply held and are used to define what it means to belong to a civilized society. It also recounts the case called “Paquete Habana” in the U.S. Supreme Court that addresses the question of whether customary international law is binding on the United States. The chapter talks about the treaty law or conventional law as the source of multilateral conventions that often covers the same ground as customary international law. It analyzes the prohibitions against “torture” that are set forth in several multilateral treaties and reinforce recognition that a particular norm set forth in a treaty has the status of customary law.

scholarly journals Power Transition Theory Revisited: When Rising China Meets Dissatisfied United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 05 (03) ◽  
pp. 317-341
Author(s):  
Serafettin Yilmaz ◽  
Wang Xiangyu
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Transition Theory ◽  
Power Transition ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
Power Transition Theory ◽  
The Status ◽  
Rising Power ◽  
The U.S

Dissatisfaction is a major concept in power transition theory, which postulates that a rapidly rising power tends to be dissatisfied with the international system and would thus attempt to reform or replace it, whereas the hegemonic power would, by default, be satisfied with and work to maintain the status quo. This paper, however, offers an alternative outlook on the reigning-rising power dynamics by examining the conditions for and implications of hegemonic dissatisfaction and rising power satisfaction. It argues that although China, as a potential systemic challenger harboring grievances against the existing global regimes, has been a recurrent subject for studies, it is the United States, the established hegemon, that appears increasingly dissatisfied with the status quo. The U.S. dissatisfaction is informed by a set of internal and external factors often justified with a reference to China as a challenger, and is manifested in a number of anti-system strategies, including unconventional diplomatic rhetoric, as well as withdrawal from various international institutions or attempts to undermine them. The U.S. discontent, as contrasted with China’s satisfaction as a rising power, has a number of potential geopolitical and economic implications at the bilateral, regional, and global levels, endangering the viability and sustainability of the universally accepted political and economic regimes.

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