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.