Proactive Strategies for Protecting Species: Pre-Listing Conservation and the Endangered Species Act

by C. Josh Donlan (Editor)

Overview

Now forty years old, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) remains a landmark act in conservation and one of the world’s most comprehensive laws designed to prevent species extinctions and support recovery efforts for imperiled species. A controversial law and often subject to political attack, the ESA is successful overall but not without difficulties. Those who enforce the ESA, for example, struggle to achieve viable recovery goals for many species.

At the forefront of challenges is a reactive framework that sometimes leads to perverse incentives and legal battles that strain support and resources. Further, few species have been delisted. Proactive Strategies for Protecting Species explores the perspectives, opportunities, and challenges around designing and implementing pre-listing programs and approaches to species conservation.

This volume brings together conservation biologists, economists, private and government stakeholders, and others to create a legal, scientific, sociological, financial, and technological foundation for designing solutions that incentivize conservation action for hundreds of at-risk species—prior to their potential listing under the ESA.

This forward-thinking, innovative volume provides a roadmap for designing species conservation programs on the ground so they are effective and take place upstream of regulation, which will contribute to a reduction in lawsuits and other expenses that arise after a species is listed. Proactive Strategies for Species Protection is a guidebook for anyone anywhere interested in designing programs that incentivize environmental stewardship and species conservation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520276888
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	03/20/2015
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

C. Josh Donlan is director and founder of Advanced Conservation Strategies, an organization that makes livelihoods and environments better through science, human-centered design, and innovation. He is a recipient of Fulbright and Guggenheim fellowships and has published over eighty scientific and public articles in venues such as Nature, Conservation Biology, and PNAS.

Table of Contents

Contributors ix

Foreword Michael J. Bean xiii

Preface xvii

Part 1 Introduction and Perspectives

1 An Introduction to Pre-Listing Conservation C. Josh Donlan Catherine Kothacker 3

2 A Primer on Species Avoidance, Minimization, and Compensatory Mitigation under the US Endangered Species Act Becca Madsen 14

3 Perspective: Endangered Species, the Desert Tortoise, and Job Creation Myles Traphagen 26

4 Perspective: Renewable Energy and Endangered Species Sean Kiernan 36

5 Perspective: The Challenges and Benefits of Pre-Listing Conservation Approaches to Military Readiness Ryan Orndoff 43

6 Perspective: Stewardship over Regulation and Harnessing the Agricultural Sector for Species Conservation Terry R. Fankhauser 52

7 Perspective: Eorest Conservation and Private Landowners Rhett Johnson Mary Sniekus 61

Part 2 Designing Pre-Listing Conservation Programs 71

8 Pre-Listing Conservation: Law, Policy, and Pilot Projects Ya-Wei Li Timothy Male 73

9 A Primer on Biodiversity Measurement Systems Bobby Cochran Nicole Maness 94

10 A Landowner-Centered Approach to Incentivizing Participation in Pre-Listing Conservation Programs Michael G. Sorice Troy Abel 105

11 Market Models and Finance for Upstream Species Conservation C. Josh Donlan Abhishek Jain Barbara Muller 115

12 Tools to Promote Transparent and Efficient Markets for Species Conservation Joanna Silver 131

13 The Role of Electronic Marketplaces in Scaling Environmental Markets Michael Van Patten Aaron Martin 141

Part 3 Case Studies 147

14 Prospects for Pre-Listing Conservation in Freshwater Ecosystems Daniel A. Auerbach Todd K. BenDor 149

15 The Greater Sage-Grouse, Energy Development, and Pre-Listing Conservation Shauna Ginger Sara Vickerman Bruce Taylor 167

16 The Gopher Tortoise, Military Readiness, and Pre-Listing Conservation Todd Gartner C. Josh Donlan Michael G. Sorice James Mulligan Mary Snieckus Rhett Johnson 188

17 The Future of Pre-Listing Conservation Programs for Wildlife Conservation Timothy Male C. Josh Donlan 219

References 231

Index 257

Editorial Reviews

"I appreciated the diversity of land uses represented in the text, from agriculture and forestry to energy development to military training. The diversity of geographic areas and ecosystems presented in the volume also is high." 

The Quarterly Review of Biology

"A breath of fresh air... This book represents the first concerted, pragmatic effort to examine how [PLC programs] might actually be accomplished in a market-based framework." 

BioScience - Robin S. Waples