DEFENDING ENDANGERED SPECIES

The Endangered Species Act’s rigorous, science-based approach to species conservation has resulted in unparalleled, clearly demonstrable gains for animals and plants at risk of extinction across the country. Fueled by citizen suits that compel sluggish government agencies to uphold the law and protect species — with the Center leading the country in the number of species protected, through petitions, lawsuits, and negotiation — the Act is the country’s number-one tool for conserving biodiversity. The Center has documented a number of its successes in U.S. regions and with key species on the state level and nationwide and continues to work on systematic assessments of the Act’s performance.

Meanwhile — though times are better since the Obama administration took office — the Endangered Species Act is still vulnerable to attacks from industry-backed interests in Washington, D.C., where, according to the ebb and flow of lobbying influence in Congress and the White House, politicians are pressured to de-authorize or substantially weaken the Act. This has occurred most often in obscure, backdoor ways driven by vested interests, since the Endangered Species Act enjoys tremendous and widespread popular support. The Center has played a central role over the years in fending off these insidious assaults, often by supplying policymakers with the scientific data they need to effectively defend the Act from ill-informed detractors.

The Bush administration was by far the worst in history for endangered species — and we’re still cleaning up [link to Bush legacy page] the mess it left. Through educating the public, rallying citizen support, and taking to the courts, we were a key force opposing the Bush administration’s evisceration of the Act just before he left office. And our close watchdogging of the agency chiefly responsible for endangered species protection, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has brought official corruption to light and, by exposing bureaucratic wrongdoing, catalyzed a large-scale re-evaluation of unsound decisions that would hurt species.

MILESTONES

Since our inception in 1989, the Center for Biological Diversity has:

• Won Endangered Species Act protection for more than 360 plants and animals.
• Helped listed species obtain more than 101 million acres of federally protected critical habitat.
• Made the Bush administration’s 11th-hour evisceration of the Endangered Species Act a national issue, filling suit the very day the rule changes were finalized — and helping spur the Obama administration to withdraw them.
• Broke the story in the Washington Post on former Interior official Julie MacDonald’s detrimental political interference in endangered species decisions.
• Waged a campaign to overturn politically tainted decisions affecting  55 imperiled species and 8 million acres of critical habitat — with 23 critical habitat decisions and five listing decisions already under reconsideration.
• Petitioned for 225 imperiled species languishing on the “candidate list” without the protections they need, subsequently suing on behalf of all 280 species.
• Helped defeat former Congressman Richard Pombo’s 2006 attack on the Endangered Species Act through research, intensive public outreach, and proving the power of the Act through our ESA Works campaign.
• Reached a landmark 2001 agreement with former Interior Secretary Gale Norton  resulting in federal protections for 29 species and numerous critical habitat areas.