In this email:

1. SCB’s recommendations to Obama’s Transition Team

>>Download a copy

2. Update on work with the Endangered Species Coalition, the National Council for Science and the Environment, and the United States Congress.

SCB’s Policy Director is John Fitzgerald.

Contact: jitzgerald@conbio.org
+1-202-234-4133 x107

On Thursday December 11th, SCB presented its recommendations to six members of the Presidential Transition Team representing the Interior and Agriculture Department and EPA teams.  SCB Executive Director Alan Thornhill, Policy Director, John Fitzgerald, former North America Policy Chair Dominick DellaSala, and annual conference seminar leader and policy panelist Francesca Grifo summarized the report that they and other contributors had developed to guide the new President and his team as they begin their new Administration.  We were assured that they would send the report to all of the affected teams who were not present then from Commerce to Treasury and their various agencies and offices.  We may be able to follow this paper with another that will more fully reflect contributions from our chapters and other elements of SCB that we were unable to include when we learned that the transition team needed our material in electronic form as soon as possible, several days before we could brief them on it in person.

SCB's transition paper [click here for a copy] includes contributions from policy officers of other organizations and senior expert members of SCB contributing their own time.  It was edited and cleared by the North American Section leadership and the global Policy Committee.  While other scientific societies and supporting organizations ended up submitting their own recommendations, either as part of the conservation groups' recommendations or on their own, the collaborative process of this informal consortium continued a practice that has produced powerful results, such as our joint comments with the Ornithological Council and The Wildlife Society on proposed regulations that would significantly reduce the scope and power of the consultation process under the Endangered Species Act (click here for a copy of the joint comments -- attached to this email.)

In order to "leverage" or multiply SCB's influence and in order to learn from our colleagues in other organizations, we participate actively in coalitions and conferences whose work is also designed to advance the science and practice of conserving biodiversity.  Two of these produced remarkable sets of recommendations for the new Administration and Congress and we were glad to play significant roles in each.

Endangered Species Coalition
Throughout the year, week in and week out, we work with the Endangered Species Coalition to improve the implementation of the Endangered Species Act. The ESC, with the help of a set of judges and advisors, including SCB's policy director, developed a set of recommendations that may have reflected the closest thing to a core consensus of highest priority actions, with particular emphasis on candidate species and others awaiting the office, powerful protections of the Act -- See the report "Without a Net" is on the ESC web site.

National Council for Science and the Environment
Over the past few months we also worked closely with the National Council on Science and the Environment.  Their annual conference was scheduled in time to develop recommendations on conserving biodiversity for the Presidential Transition Team (PTT).  We led their breakout session on policy and law (Session number 30) aided by panelists Dinah Bear, Bob Dreher, Lyle Glowka, and bridge speakers Margarte Shannon, Laura Bies and Francesca Griofo, whom we had invited to begin that session.  We were glad to find its recommendations leading the list of the many presented to the PTT on that subject. While we are now editing the detailed notes, the summary recommendations on biodiversity are posted on the NCSE web site.

 NCSE also presented the PTT with summaries of their past conference recommendations  and that memo is also posted by NCSE.

United States Congress
Finally, SCB continues to work with concerned Members and Committees of Congress and responsible officials in the executive branch.  The results of the third investigation that we helped recommend were released on Monday, December 15th.  The redacted version is available on the web site of Senator Ron Wyden (Democrat, from Oregon) along with his news release about the report .

SCB and others strongly suggested as early as May of 2007 that the Congress limit the harvesting or permanent diversion of natural resources of forests, water, and landscapes that are required by the endangered species affected by potentially illegal agency decisions until those decisions could be reviewed and revised.  The Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office have issued several reports since then.  A few members of Congress belatedly attempted to limit weakening regulations but none seriously stepped in to halt habitat conversions made possible by suspect or irregular decisions. It is clearer with each new report that the economic beneficiaries of the decisions now officially in question may themselves be liable for significant damages and penalties if they are found to have knowingly participated in schemes to use misleading information or material misstatements of fact in these federal proceedings and decisions.  Our final recommendation is that the new Attorney General ensure that the enforcement of the laws protecting the environment and the integrity of scientific information in federal decision making receive highest priority.

John Fitzgerald

Problems viewing this email? http://www.conbio.org/2008PolicyTransition.cfm