Decision-Making in Endangered Species Management

Abstract

This paper examines decisions made by the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, to protect species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and to fund their recovery. Using a data set that includes scientific, economic, and political variables on vertebrates from 1989 to 1997, this paper estimates a variety of regression models of the listing and funding decisions. Although required by law to consider only scientific factors such as species’ vulnerability in its decision-making, FWS appears instead to favor visceral characteristics, such as species’ taxonomic class and size. Both criteria are defensible. Nonetheless, the paper recommends that FWS and its partner agencies acknowledge and try to resolve the inconsistencies between their legal obligations and their actual behavior to ensure more effective implementation of this important piece of environmental legislation.