SYSTEMATIC
DELAYS IN ENDANGERED SPECIES LISTING PROGRAM ALLOWED 83 SPECIES
TO BECOME EXTINCT
79% OF ALL EXTINCT PLANTS AND ANIMALS SINCE 1973 WERE NOT LISTED
AS ENDANGERED SPECIES
77% WERE KNOWN TO BE ENDANGERED, BUT PROTECTION WAS REPEATEDLY
DELAYED, OFTEN FOR TEN OR TWENTY YEARS UNTIL THE SPECIES BECAME
EXTINCT
Capping two years of research, the Center for Biological
Diversity released a report on May 1, 2004 identifying all species
that became
extinct or missing in the first 21 years of the Endangered Species
Act. The number--108--is shockingly high and indicates a grave
failure in federal management of the nation’s most powerful
environmental law.
While only 21% of the extinctions involved species
on the endangered species list, a full 79% were not on the list.
Lacking legal protection,
recovery plans, critical habitat, and recovery funding, these species
went extinct due a lack of commitment and attention. "Virtually
all of these species could have been saved if the Endangered Species
Act was properly managed, fully funded and shielded from political
pressure," said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the
Center for Biological Diversity and one of three authors of the
paper. "Instead they were sacrificed to bureaucratic inertia,
political meddling, and lack of leadership."
Highlights of the study:
- 85 species became extinct with no Endangered Species Act protection
- lengthy
listing delays, sometimes as long as 20 years, contributed
to the extinction of 83 species
- 24 species became extinct while
waiting on the federal candidate or warrant review list
- 17
species became extinct while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
illegally delayed processing of petitions to protect
them.
- In some cases the agency knew the delay would cause
extinction, but chose to do so rather than confront powerful
political
interests
"Listing delays and extinctions have plagued the Fish and
Wildlife Service for 30 years," said Brian Nowicki, coauthor
of the paper, "but the Bush administration has pushed the
crisis to an unprecedented level. It has virtually shut down the
listing program, placing an average of just nine species on the
list per year. The Clinton administration averaged 65 listings
per year, Bush Sr. averaged 59, and even Reagan mustered 32. It’s
a disgrace."
The greatest zones of extinction were the Pacific Islands, the
Western U.S., and the Southeast. Hawaii suffered almost half of
all the extinctions. California ranked second. Southern states
including Texas, Alabama and Florida also ranked high.
The Center for Biological Diversity calls upon
the Bush Administration to fully fund the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service’s request
for $153 million to list all species waiting for protection on
the federal candidate list. The Bush Administration has asked Congress
for just $17 million. It also calls on the administration to immediately
propose all candidate species for ESA protection and to develop
a five-year plan to finalize protection for them all. |