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SCB TO CONDUCT NATIONAL REVIEW OF RECOVERY PLANS

The Society for Conservation Biology has launched a national review of recovery plans for species listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The purpose of the Act is to protect and restore populations of threatened and endangered plants and animals and the ecosystems and habitats upon which they depend. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) are responsible for administration of the Act and for developing and implementing recovery efforts for listed species. The typical recovery plan outlines a number of actions that, when implemented, are expected to enable the species to be delisted. About 500 final recovery plans have been written, of which 420 cover single species. In recent years, increasing effort has been directed toward producing multi-species recovery plans. In total, 926 species are covered by existing plans.

SCB, with the full cooperation of FWS, has undertaken a characterization and review of existing recovery plans. The goal of the review, which will be carried out by graduate student seminars at 18 universities, is to compile a database and conduct exploratory analysis of the information in recovery plans in a manner that (a) facilitates communication among students, faculty and the FWS and (b) contributes toward developing training programs and guidance to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of producing recovery plans based on sound science.

The project began in September 1998 with preparation of a draft detailed questionnaire that will serve as the primary tool for characterizing the recovery plans. In mid-December, FWS biologists, members of the regulated community, representatives of environmental NGOs, and seminar leaders gathered at a workshop in Washington, D.C. to fine-tune the questionnaire and establish procedures to govern the comprehensive review process that will take place this winter.

Each seminar will start by reviewing one recovery plan previously scored by experts from the FWS. This initial exercise is intended to help standardize procedures and to assess the significance of potential individual and regional differences in how the questionnaire is answered. Each seminar ultimately will review approximately ten recovery plans. The plans will be selected in a stratified random manner in order to assess the roles and consequences of the following five factors: (1) date the plan was prepared, (2) scale of plan (single or multiple species), (3) how, when, and why recovery plans are revised, (4) evolutionary lineage (i.e., taxon) of the focal species, and (5) life history of the species (particularly whether it is narrowly distributed or endemic versus wide-ranging).

To complete the detailed questionnaire, students will answer hundreds of questions about each recovery plan. Sources of information will include the listing document, the recovery plan itself, FWS biannual reports to Congress, and a contact provided by FWS for each seminar group to help answer questions about its focal recovery plans. To keep seminar groups interactive, a web page is being established. One person from each seminar will be designated as the web contact, but all participants will be able to communicate easily online.

When the review team completes its analysis of a recovery plan, the team leader will enter the data onto the web site. Data from the 180 plans included in the national review will serve as the basis for a broad characterization and analysis of recovery plans that will be conducted at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) in Santa Barbara, California from 10-13 April 1999. A draft manuscript based upon the results of the latter characterization and analysis will serve as the basis for a workshop, attended by academics and FWS staff, to be held at NCEAS from 13-16 May. The goal of the workshop is to produce a manuscript for publication in Conservation Biology that synthesizes suggestions and recommendations for improving recovery planning for species listed under the Endangered Species Act. Both activities at NCEAS will be led by Dee Boersma and Peter Kareiva.

Universities participating in the recovery plan review are

Arizona State University
Colorado State University
Cornell University
Duke University
Notre Dame University
Texas A & M University
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Davis (2 seminars)
University of California, Santa Barbara
University of Idaho
University of Maine
University of Minnesota
University of Montana
University of Nevada
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin
Utah State University

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