Threatened species listing as a trigger for conservation action
abstract
Legislative listing schemes, under which the listing of a species as threatened automatically
triggers command regulation and/or recovery planning, raise significant issues for policy
makers. In this paper, we explore strategies for factoring considerations beyond the
empirical assessment of a species’ conservation status into the resource allocation decisions
that flow from listing. Even in threatened species legislation that appears to prioritise
species conservation over socio-economic considerations by creating an automatic nexus
between listing and conservation response, there are significant pressure valves that allow
the latter to exercise a significant influence on decisions in practice. We critically examine
two other techniques currently used in legislation that allow a broader range of considerations
to be factored into resource allocation decisions: abandoning the automatic triggering
of resource allocation by listing; and taking into account a broader range of considerations in
the listing decision itself. We conclude by outlining the framework for a strategic approach
to the allocation of conservation resources. This has three limbs to it: recovery plans that
identify what needs to be done to bring about recovery, in addition to what available
resources will allow us to do; a system for prioritising between the implementation of
recovery plans; and the integration of threatened species conservation into strategic land
use planning processes.
1. Introduction
Legislative threatened species listing regimes at a national
level are increasingly turning to listing criteria derived from
those developed under the auspices of the IUCN for its Red List
of species at high risk of extinction at a global level. The IUCN
Council adopted the most recent version of the criteria,
version 3.1, in 2001 (IUCN, 2001).
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the financial assistance provided by
the Australian Research Council in facilitating this research,
which is part of a broader project examining intersections
between science and law in the context of threatened species
legislation. They would also like to thank three anonymous
reviewers for their detailed comments.