AGENDA: Biodiversity Protection: Implementation and Reform of the Endangered Species Act

Abstract

Conference organizers and/or faculty included University of Colorado School of Law professors Betsy Rieke, David H. Getches, Michael A. Gheleta and Charles F. Wilkinson. All across the country--in Congress, in state legislatures and in urban and rural communities--people are discussing why we should or should not protect biodiversity and how best to do so. Since the Endangered Species Act is up for reauthorization, a variety of reform proposals are being debated. Speakers--including natural resource scholars, experts from the private and nonprofit sectors, and government officials--will examine the rationale for biodiversity protection, the legal framework of the Endangered Species Act, and examples of implementation of the Act from across the West. Special attention will be given to major issues raised by the Act that cut across all regions, including: consultations and recovery planning; habitat conservation plans; the ESA and water rights; the ESA and state programs; the ESA and tribal rights; economic impacts of the ESA; and ESA reform proposals. The traditional three-day conference has been expanded to include a keynote address Sunday evening by Jane Lubchenco, Valley Professor of Marine Biology, Department of Zoology, Oregon State University. This address will be part of the conference, but will also be open to the public. A marine biologist by training, Dr. Lubchenco is engaged in a wide variety of activities intended to address serious environmental problems by improving the scientific understanding of issues, making the best possible scientific information and expertise more accessible to policy and decision makers, and improving the public's understanding of ecological topics. She led the innovative efforts of the Ecological Society of America to set national priorities for ecological research. This endeavor resulted in the Sustainable Biosphere Initiative, which advances ecological research and provides policy-relevant ecological expertise to national policy and decision-makers. Dr. Lubchenco coordinated the sections of the United Nations Environment Programme's newly released Global Biodiversity Assessment. She is President-Elect of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a past President of the Ecological Society of America. She is a Pew Scholar in Conservation and the Environment, and a MacArthur Fellow. Her B.A. is from Colorado College, her M.S. from the University of Washington, and Ph.D. from Harvard. We have also added to our traditional mountain cookout a talk by Don Snow, Executive Director, Northern Lights Institute, and Editor, Northern Lights Magazine, Laramie.