Skip to main content
University of California Press

Proactive Strategies for Protecting Species

Pre-Listing Conservation and the Endangered Species Act

by C. Josh Donlan (Editor)
Price: $65.00 / £55.00
Publication Date: Mar 2015
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 288
ISBN: 9780520960497
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Illustrations: 12 line drawings, 14 b/w image

About the Book

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.

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
Foreword - Michael J. Bean
Preface

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION AND PERSPECTIVES
1. An Introduction to Pre-Listing Conservation - C. Josh Donlan and Catherine Rothacker
2. A Primer on Species Avoidance, Minimization, and Compensatory Mitigation under the US Endangered Species Act - Becca Madsen
3. Perspective: Endangered Species, the Desert Tortoise, and Job Creation - Myles Traphagen
4. Perspective: Renewable Energy and Endangered Species - Sean Kiernan
5. Perspective: The Challenges and Benefits of Pre-Listing Conservation Approaches to Military Readiness - Ryan Orndoff
6. Perspective: Stewardship over Regulation and Harnessing the Agricultural Sector for Species Conservation - Terry R. Fankhauser
7. Perspective: Forest Conservation and Private Landowners - Rhett Johnson and Mary Sniekus

PART TWO: DESIGNING PRE-LISTING CONSERVATION PROGRAMS
8. Pre-Listing Conservation: Law, Policy, and Pilot Projects - Ya-Wei Li and Timothy Male
9. A Primer on Biodiversity Measurement Systems - Bobby Cochran and Nicole Maness
10. A Landowner-Centered Approach to Incentivizing Participation in Pre-Listing Conservation Programs - Michael G. Sorice and Troy Abel
11. Market Models and Finance for Upstream Species Conservation - C. Josh Donlan, Abhishek Jain, and Barbara Mu¨ller
12. Tools to Promote Transparent and Efficient Markets for Species Conservation - Joanna Silver
13. The Role of Electronic Marketplaces in Scaling Environmental Markets - Michael Van Patten and Aaron Martin

PART THREE: CASE STUDIES
14. Prospects for Pre-Listing Conservation in Freshwater Ecosystems - Daniel A. Auerbach and Todd K. BenDor
15. The Greater Sage-Grouse, Energy Development, and Pre-Listing Conservation - Shauna Ginger, Sara Vickerman, and Bruce Taylor
16. The Gopher Tortoise, Military Readiness, and Pre-Listing Conservation - Todd Gartner, C. Josh Donlan, Michael G. Sorice, James Mulligan, Mary Snieckus, and Rhett Johnson
17. The Future of Pre-Listing Conservation Programs for Wildlife Conservation - Timothy Male and C. Josh Donlan

References
Index

Reviews

"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
"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
"This book is an invitation to innovation, bristling with fresh ideas. Some suggestions may not work; others will surely move us forward. A must-read for those who are rethinking the future of the Endangered Species Act."—Bruce Babbitt, former United States Secretary of the Interior

"This is the first book I have seen that makes a real attempt to suggest ways to outflank the Endangered Species Act so that species preservation actually happens."—Randy Simmons, Utah State University, and coauthor of Wilderness and Political Ecology

"For those who agree that incurring the cost of upstream conservation is preferable to waiting for the Endangered Species Act to sound the alarm of pending species endangerment, this primer provides an important and pragmatic guide while also promoting responsible stewardship of the incredible natural resources entrusted to our care."—Jamie Rappaport Clark, Executive Director, Defenders of Wildlife

“There's a big idea at the heart of this book—the kind of big idea that promises to transform how we conduct the business of species and habitat conservation. Everyone wins when the public and private sectors work together to sustain wildlife and natural resources through the use of proactive incentives instead of only relying on regulation. These types of approaches are at the foundation of environmental health, economic opportunity, and cross-sectorial cooperation.” —Craig Hanson, Global Director of Food, Forests & Water at the World Resources Institute

"Donlan and his contributors have captured an essential insight: conservation works best when we take early and sustained action to protect species and ecosystems. This book will serve as an indispensable guide for those who want not only to save endangered species, but also to prevent those species from becoming endangered in the first place."—Peter Alagona, UC Santa Barbara, and author of After the Grizzly: Endangered Species and the Politics of Place in California