A Summary of the Endangered Species Act and Implementation Activities; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The Endangered Species Act of 1973

HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT OF 1973,

including Its Relationship to CITES

(updated October 1996)

Congress passed the Endangered Species Preservation Act in 1966. This law allowed listing of only native animal species as endangered and provided limited means for the protection of species so listed. The Departments of Interior, Agriculture, and Defense were to seek to protect listed species, and insofar as consistent with their primary purposes, preserve the habitats of such species. Land acquisition for protection of endangered species was also authorized. The Endangered Species Conservation Act of 1969 was passed to provide additional protection to species in danger of "worldwide extinction". Import of such species was prohibited, as was their subsequent sale within the U.S. This Act called for an international ministerial meeting to adopt a convention on the conservation of endangered species.

A 1973 conference in Washington led to the signing of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which restricted international commerce in plant and animal species believed to be actually or potentially harmed by trade.

Later that year, the Endangered Species Act of 1973 was passed, which combined and considerably strengthened the provisions of its predecessors, and broke some new ground.

Its principal provisions follow:

U.S. and foreign species lists were combined, with uniform provisions applied to both [section 4];
Categories of "endangered" and "threatened" were defined [section 3];
Plants and all classes of invertebrates were eligible for protection, as they are under CITES [section 3];
All Federal agencies were required to undertake programs for the conservation of endangered and threatened species, and were prohibited from authorizing, funding, or carrying out any action that would jeopardize a listed species or destroy or modify its "critical habitat" [section 7];
Broad taking prohibitions were applied to all endangered animal species, which could apply to threatened animals by special regulation [section 9];
Matching Federal funds became available for States with cooperative agreements [section 6];
Authority was provided to acquire land for listed animals and for plants listed under CITES [section 5]; and
U.S. implementation of CITES was provided [section 8].

Significant amendments have been enacted in 1978, 1982, and 1988, while the overall framework of the 1973 Act has remained essentially unchanged. The funding levels in the present Act were authorized through Fiscal Year 1992. Principal amendments are listed below:

1978:

Provisions were added to Section 7, allowing Federal agencies to undertake an action that would jeopardize listed species if the action were exempted by a cabinet-level committee convened for this purpose;
Critical habitat was required to be designated concurrently with the listing of a species, when prudent, and economic and other impacts of designation were required to be considered in deciding on boundaries [section 4];
The Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture (for the Forest Service) were directed to develop a program for conserving fish, wildlife and plants, including listed species, and land acquisition authority was extended to such species [section 5];
The definition of "species" with respect to "populations" was restricted to vertebrates; otherwise, any species, subspecies or variety of plant, or species or subspecies of animal remained listable under the Act [section 3].

1982:

Determinations of the status of species were required to be made solely on the basis of biological and trade information, without any consideration of possible economic or other effects [section 4];
A final rule to determine the status of a species was required to follow within one year of its proposal unless withdrawn for cause [section 4];
Provision was made for designation of experimental populations of listed species that could be subject to different treatment under section 4 , for critical habitat, and section 7 [section 10]; and
A prohibition was inserted against removing listed plants from land under Federal jurisdiction and reducing them to possession [section 9].

1988:

Monitoring of candidate and recovered species was required, with adoption of emergency listing when there is evidence of significant risk [section 4].
Several amendments dealt with recovery matters: 1) recovery plans will undergo public notice and review, and affected Federal agencies must give consideration to those comments; 2) section 4(g) requires five years of monitoring of species that have recovered; and 3) biennial reports are required on the development and implementation of recovery plans and on the status of all species with plans.
A new section 18 requires a report of all reasonably identifiable expenditures on a species-by-species basis be made on the recovery of endangered or threatened species by the States and the Federal government [see last page].
Protection for endangered plants was extended to include destruction on Federal land and other taking when it violates State law [section 9].

The Endangered Species Act and What We Do
General Information Partnerships with States, Communities and Landowners Our Listing Program Our Consultations Program Habitat Conservation Planning Our Recovery & Delisting Program Grants to States, Territories and Private Landowners Working with Tribes

Keywords =Endangered Species Act implementation summary, summary of the ESA and implementation activities, ESA history, ESA administration, listing process, consultation and jeopardy opinions, endangered species import/export, recovery permits, incidental take permits, grants to the States, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service