PECE and Cooperative Conservation: Innovation or Subversion under the Endangered Species Act?

摘要

Enforcement of the Endangered Species Act (the "Act" or "ESA") has long been a tricky endeavor. While few dispute that the goals of the ESA are laudable, far more complex sentiments emerge when the heavy hand of the Act operates to preclude either private action on private land or resource development on state or public lands. This intrinsic tension is particularly pronounced in the "listing" context where the ESA affords no consideration to the economic or social impacts of listing a species while setting the strictures of the Act in motion. Conflicts over listings frequently, if not automatically, result in litigation instigated by actors from both sides of the political spectrum.