Attributes of preemptive conservation efforts for species’ precluded from listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act

Abstract

AbstractPreemptive conservation efforts to reduce threats have been credited with precluding the need to list some imperiled species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). Such efforts can result in outcomes where species are conserved and regulatory costs associated with ESA listing are avoided. Yet, the extent and type of conservation effort that has been involved in achieving preclusion from listing is not well understood. Here, we quantify the attributes of conservation efforts that were identified as important for 43 species whose preclusion from listing was attributed to conservation efforts, as described by Federal Register documents that reported the decisions not to list. We consider two features of preemptive conservation: the effort applied – measured as the number of conservation initiatives‐ and the number of conservation partners involved. We also quantified the type and location of conservation actions. We found a mean of 4.3 initiatives (range: one to 22) and 8.2 partners (range: one to 31) documented per precluded species, with both measures of conservation effort significantly and positively associated with the species’ range area and the percentage of private land across its range. The number of initiatives was also positively related to the number of threats affecting a species. Locations of conservation actions varied, with more species having actions on public land than on private land (p = 0.003). Similar numbers of species had restorative actions (e.g., invasive species control) as prohibitive actions. Our findings highlight relationships between species’ context and preemptive conservation activities, providing a first cross‐species analysis of conservation efforts for species that were precluded from listing under the ESA due to conservation.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved