Wildlife Innovation and Longevity Driver (WILD) Act: S. 826:
Program Design Options
Overview and Mandated Provisions
The Wildlife Innovation and Longevity Driver (WILD) Act was composed with the aim of improving and maintaining global biodiversity by addressing four critical issues: habitat loss, invasive species, and wildlife poaching/trafficking. The WILD Act addresses these issues through four provisions: 1) establishing the Theodore Roosevelt Genius Prizes, 2) reauthorizing the Multinational Species Conservation Funds (MSCF), 3) amending the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act (FWCA), and 4) reauthorizing the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program (PFWP) (S. 826 - WILD Act, 2017). This memo outlines the key unresolved issues within the
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Four of the five reauthorizations of the Multinational Species Conservation Acts extend the timelines of funding, but the Great Apes Act has a new directive to convene a panel of experts to prioritize ape conservation efforts. However, the implementation does not change so the new priorities would be easily integrated into the current program. The Theodore Roosevelt Genius Prizes are completely new entities, but they are created under the Stevenson-Wydler Act of 1980. This act has enacted many prizes previously, so there is a standard implementation that would be followed. The amendment to the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act creates a new directive for all governmental departments that manage invasive species to create a management plan, but leaves the prioritization and implementation of the plans to the discretion of the secretaries. The amendment to the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act leaves the most to the discretion of the administrator, and this report seeks to inform the decisions not specifically …show more content…
This particular program design option fuses both the economics of applying a numerical value to the ecology of the services that the environment provides. However a major criticism of this particular program design option is that it tends to only focus on the quantitative variables that apply to human society, however there are many other qualitative variables such as the sentimental benefits of the environment that cannot be quantified that are missing from the valuation. In this particular program design option, a target habitat will be prioritized based on the analysis that is provided. Different frameworks have different methods of calculating an ecosystem valuation, hence an understanding or development of a method that can be applied to a range of biomes will be imperative. A comparative analysis of this has already been carried out by Pandya et al., where it was found that most ecosystem valuation approaches were useful to explain ecosystem valuation at a macro scale and theoretical level, however relevant local ecosystem valuation services are hindered by data scarcity which negatively impacts the ability to make decisions with regards to local policy development (Pandya et al.,
Estimates are that at the turn of the twentieth century over two million wild horses roamed free in the western United States. However, having no protection from their primary predator, man, by the 1970’s there numbers had dwindled to less than thirty thousand. In 1971, after a massive public uproar, Congress by a unanimous vote enacted the “Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act” (Act) that characterizes wild horses and burros as national treasures and provides for their protection.
Committee on Senate Energy and National Resources Subcommittee on National Parks. 3 June 2003: ESBCO. Mission Viejo Library., Mission Viejo, CA. 31 July 2005. http://web31.epnet.com/citation.
Our system today is inherently opposed to developing a relationship with the land because it depends on evidence in terms of monetary worth. “One basic weakness in a conservationist system based wholly on economic motives is that most members of the land community have no economic value” (246). How much is a wildflower or a songbird worth? Therefore, this infinitely complex ecological system, which depends upon an unforeseeable amount of community-shaping mechanisms, tends to become increasingly diseased. “It tends to ignore, and thus eventually to eliminate, many elements in the land community that lack commercial values, but that are (as we know) essential to its healthy functioning” (252).
In May 1991, Federal District Judge William Dwyer issued a landmark decision finding that the Forest Service had violated the National Forest Management Act by failing to implement an acceptable management plan for the northern spotted owl. His decision forbade timber sales across the spotted owl region until the Forest Service implemented an acceptable plan. An injunction blocking timber sales in Northern Spotted Owl habitat affected 17 national forests in Washington, Oregon and Northern California.
Schlickeisen, Rodger (1998, Dec 29) Conservation; At 25, Endangered Species Act Among Our Most Effective Laws Dayton Daily News
In 1987, when the Endangered Species Act was put into practice, the Federal Wildlife Service refused to list the Northern Spotted Owl. The FWS was then sued by the National Audubon Society to list the Species. During this time period, it was discovered that when examining the Northern Spotted Owl for its listing the FWS had looked at both the economics and the politics in ...
..., L. (2011). Coastal and marine ecosystem services valuation for policy and management: Managed realignment case studies in England. Ocean and Coastal Management, 54(3), pp. 212-224.
I would argue that at the very least, there needs to be some form of triage implemented. The way the Endangered Species Act is currently allocating funds is mediocre at best and has many flaws. There is no denying there are limited resources so that makes efficient use of them even more important. Each of the systems of triage outlined in this paper have valid points and problematic components. Elements of each system could be combined into a nicely working plan that recovers the greatest number of species on a limited budget.
Halpern and his team suggest that an EBM approach may be the best solution for addressing these issues. Chuenpagdee’s research also highlights the challenges and issues surrounding the implementation of effective MPAs. The study included an in-depth look into four case studies that focused on the design stages of MPAs, and the social issues that must be taken into consideration, and how the incorporation of local communities into management efforts could lead to increases in MPA network success and sustainability. The compilation of data presented in these studies, all highlight the fact that nations are increasing the number of MPAs, in order to reach international goals of conservation, however even if the global area goals of protection are met, it is clear that the success of these protected areas will be heavily dependent upon the socioeconomic issues surrounding the impacted areas, as well as the larger-scale issues that need to be simultaneously addressed such as pollution and climate change, both of which can not be resolved by the implementation of protected zones.... ...
* Daily, Gretchen C., ed. Nature’s Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1997.
Tietenberg, Thomas. Environmental and Natural Resource Economics. Addison Wesley: New York, 2003. pp. 561. ISBN 0-201-77027-X, pp. 7-11.
Ranganathan, J. et al. (2008). Ecosystem Services a Guide for Decision Makers. World Resources Institute.
Everyone’s all seen those wildlife shows on tv. The shows on National Geographic and such, showing animals in beautiful environments, everything lush and growing and nothing at all wrong that could threaten these creatures and places. But, have anyone seen the other side? The side where all these beautiful creatures and plants starve, are decimated by predators that have never been there before, and sometime even become poisoned by their very own homes and habitats? Of course no one has. That doesn’t mean that its not happening. It is happening, and its happening everywhere. And guess who is to blame? People. Society. Humans as a race pollute the environment, hunt animals simply for their parts, fish way more than humans will ever need just for the sake of money, introduce new species to new places for our own gain, and even purposefully destroy entire regions just for human expansion. And its starting to take its toll. While it is true that nature is constantly in flux and certain species come and go, humans are causing more species to disappear in the past few hundred years then nature has ever caused since the age of the dinosaurs, and therefore it is up to humans to repair the damage caused, be it cleaning the environment and habitats of these creatures, or taking more direct action to protect and preserve the species that are on the brink of extinction.
Economic valuation is an important component of environmental policy, although it is difficult to affix a cost on the environment and ecosystem services, it is a measurement that is relevant to most in society humans. Therefore, economic tools may be useful in reinforcing the importance of maintaining biodiversity and preserving fragile ecosystems.
One of the most important protectors is the Endangered Species Act which was passed by congress in 1973 and is designed to protect imperil species from extinction as a consequence of economic growth. Over nearly four decades the ESA has helped bring back hundreds of species from the brink of extinction. A lot of well-known animals are the bald eagle, grizzly bears, and Florida manatees but includes the control of soil erosion, maintenance of nutrient cycles, waste management, and nurseries for the wide ranges of fishes that live in the Florida waters. High profile species are focused first such as the Northern Spotted Owl a study shows that in order to increase the survival percentage to 91 of 1,600 – 2,400 pairs would cost about $33 billion dollars and that would be the cost of most likely through campaigns, breeding, and other ways to increase the population. As it can be seen caring for animals is expensive especially when you have a large bunch of them. Over a period two y...