Endangered Species Bill Adds Red Tape, Won't Assure Recovery

(16 September, 1997 ? Washington, DC) The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) criticized a new Senate bill to reform the Endangered Species Act (ESA) today for failing to create adequate incentives to save endangered species from extinction. Instead, the bill would add unnecessary, costly burdens to the listing and recovery process for endangered species.

“Under current law, only 10 percent of endangered species are actually receiving enough help to rebound,” said Michael Bean, EDF senior attorney. “Changes in current law should speed the process of identifying species in need of protection, simplify the development of effective recovery plans, add a broad range of incentives to encourage landowners to manage their land in ways that benefit endangered species, and provide substantial, assured funding to make those incentives meaningful.”

“Although this bill offers some new incentives, their benefits will be substantially offset by a host of new procedural hurdles that will divert already scarce taxpayer dollars to unnecessary bureaucratic procedures and away from species protection,” said Bean. “Moreover, the new incentive measures provided in the bill are contingent on the annual appropriations process, with no guarantee that any funds will actually be spent to preserve habitat.”

“We will seek changes to ensure that in any bill enacted, the chances for species survival are improved, not worsened,” said Bean. “Rare species are often already reduced to near-extinction by the time they make the endangered list, yet the bill adds new layers of review to a listing process that already comes too late for many species. Similar new requirements in the proposed bill will make the process of developing recovery plans, the plans that guide conservation efforts once a species is placed on the list, substantially more complex and expensive.”

“Because most endangered species live on private land, a critical test for any ESA bill must be its commitment to encourage habitat protection on private land. Although this bill authorizes significant funding for landowner incentives, those incentives are limited to only a handful of potentially fruitful strategies to encourage habitat protection. In addition, these limited funds are subject to the whims of the annual appropriations process, making it altogether possible that no funds will actually be spent to encourage habitat protection,” said Bean.