INTRODUCTION

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is one of the most important pieces of conservation legislation ever passed in the United States. This act grants a legal protection for plant and animal species and populations to persist. The Endangered Species Act of 1973, and its weaker precursors of 1966 and 1969, were passed at a time of unprecedented economic well-being and expanding civil rights in the United States. Perhaps it was that era and climate that afforded the opportunity to think and care about the future in ways that recent economic and sociological conditions now make it difficult to do. As we begin a new millennium, the United States is struggling to find its political, moral, and economic path, and it is struggling to reauthorize the ESA. Since 1992, the act has been temporarily funded on an annual basis because of a lack of a political consensus for weakening or strengthening it.

The United States is not the only country that has passed legislation to protect imperiled species. The European Union, several of its member nations, and the Australian state of Victoria also have legislation that prohibits the take of imperiled species and the destruction of their habitat (de Klemm and Shine 1993; Bouchet, Faulkner, and Seddon 1999). But the comparative strength, scope, and flexibility of the ESA has led to its description as “the most comprehensive legislation for the preservation of endangered species ever enacted by any nation” (U.S. Supreme Court 1978). The ESA, therefore, stands as a model to be emulated by other countries.