Conservation triage or injurious neglect in endangered species recovery.

ABSTRACT: Listing endangered and threatened species under the US Endangered Species Act is presumed to offer a defense against extinction and a solution to achieve recovery of imperiled populations, but only if effective conservation action ensues after listing occurs. The amount of government funding available for species protection and recovery is one of the best predictors of successful recovery; however, government spending is both insufficient and highly disproportionate among groups of species, and there is significant discrepancy between proposed and actualized budgets across species. In light of an increasing list of imperiled species requiring evaluation and protection, an explicit approach to allocating recovery funds is urgently needed. Here I provide a formal decision-theoretic approach

SUBMITTER: Gerber LR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4822619 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature