The ESA has been associated with recovering iconic species such as the peregrine falcon ( Falco peregrinus) and bald eagle ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus), as well as lesser-known species including the Magazine Mountain shagreen snail ( Inflectarius magazinensis) and the Johnston's frankenia flowering plant ( Frankenia johnstonii).Īs of January 2020, 46 US native species have been removed from the ESA list due to their recovery ( US Fish Wildlife Service, 2020a). In the United States (US), the strongest law for preventing species extinction is the Endangered Species Act (ESA) ( Taylor et al., 2005 Malcom and Li, 2015 Evans et al., 2016 Gerber et al., 2018). Many countries have laws and regulations to protect and recover native species and populations, such as Canada's Species at Risk Act of 2002, United Kingdom's Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981, Australia's Endangered Species Protection Act of 1992, and New Zealand's Conservation Act of 1987.
#Backbone definition science how to#
Lessons learned could provide a road map on how to achieve species recovery to incentivize positive recovery actions and programs ( International Union for the Conservation of Nature., 2020). The purpose of this list is to learn from species conservation success stories and develop an optimistic vision of species conservation. For example, the International Union of the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is currently in the process of creating metrics to define species recovery and identify a “green list” of species that were once vulnerable and are now recovered ( Akçakaya et al., 2018). To help direct such change, it is important to understand which factors predispose conservation efforts toward successful species recovery from the brink of extinction ( Luther et al., 2016). There is broad agreement that transformative change, including increased investment in conservation ( Malcom et al., 2019), is needed to protect, maintain, and restore biodiversity and curb the extinction crisis ( Díaz et al., 2019). This is a byproduct of intense human activity causing habitat conversion, overexploitation of species, growing impacts of climate change, pollution, and spread of invasive species ( Wilcove et al., 1998 Pimm et al., 2014 Ceballos et al., 2015 Díaz et al., 2019 Leu et al., 2019). The current rate of global extinction is 10 to 1,000 times higher than the planet's baseline average ( De Vos et al., 2015 Díaz et al., 2019). Based on our review, we suggest the following strategies to improve species recovery: provide more time for ESA protection, allocate more funding for recovery, maintain environmental regulations that facilitate recovery, establish more private landowner agreements, and increase the area of protected lands. In comparison to species still listed, the average recovered species was a vertebrate, had been listed longer under the ESA, was exposed to a lower number of threats at the time of listing, and received relatively higher levels of funding. Our aim was to review federal delisting documents for recovered species and quantify patterns in taxonomy, history of threats, policy, funding and actions that are associated with species recovery. In the last decade, the recovery record for the United States Endangered Species Act (ESA) has improved. To forestall the current rate of global extinction, we need to identify strategies that successfully recover species. 4Department of Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, United States.3Center for Conservation Innovation, Defenders of Wildlife, Washington, DC, United States.
2Biology Department, William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA, United States.
0 kommentar(er)
