Upholding science-based risk assessment under a weakened Endangered Species Act

Abstract

Since the United States enacted its first species-at-risk legislation in 1966, many jurisdictions have similarly adopted legislation aimed at conserving biodiversity through the identification of species at risk of extinction, the protection of these species from harm, and the establishment of recovery programs (Ray and Ginsberg 1999; Waples et al. 2013). Although these statutes have successfully thwarted extinction for hundreds of species, they have also failed to recover many at-risk species (Schwartz 2008; Mooers et al. 2010; Evans et al. 2016). As global extinction rates approach those observed during the five mass extinction events in Earth’s history (Barnosky et al. 2011), robust, well-implemented conservation laws are critically needed to slow the loss of biodiversity (Westwood et al. 2019; Leclère et al. 2020).

Keywords

• conservation
• climate change
• geographic range
• habitat loss
• science policy
• species at risk