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Policy News
PEER REVIEW BY SCB LEADS TO WIN FOR PACIFIC NORTHWEST FORESTSNatural resource extraction and forest conservation have a history of conflict in the Pacific Northwest, USA. The so-called "timber wars" reached a climax with the federal listing of the Northern Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) as threatened in 1990 and, subsequently, with designation of the owl's critical habitat in 1992. At the time of listing, most of the owl's habitat, old and structurally complex forests, had been logged. The Northwest Forest Plan reduced logging levels on federal lands by 80%. Absent these reductions, all but the most remote old forest would have been eliminated in less than three decades. Consequently, the Northwest Forest Plan has been recognized as a global model of landscape conservation (see Conservation Biology 20:274-374[April 2006]). For more than a decade, the plan functioned as a de facto recovery plan for the Northern Spotted Owl and protected habitat for hundreds of other late-successional species. From 2001 through 2006, a series of lawsuits related to the Northwest Forest Plan were filed by the timber industry to reduce constraints on logging and by conservation groups to increase protections for the owl and other species. In 2008, the Bush administration approved a recovery plan and revised critical habitat determination for the owl that sought to protect far less of its habitat than the Northwest Forest Plan and previous habitat designation. At the request of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, a blind peer review of the recovery plan was conducted jointly by SCB and the American Ornithologists' Union. Separate reviews of the plan were conducted by The Wildlife Society, and other scientists reviewed both the recovery plan and critical habitat determination. In general, the peer review process unanimously identified major flaws in the recovery plan and critical habitat determination because these plans reduced habitat protections for the owl at a time when abundance of the species is declining at an increasing rate. The Bush administration's decisions were subsequently litigated by conservation groups, who contended that the plan was scientifically deficient and the decisions were politically motivated. On 16 July, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced plans to vacate the critical habitat decision of the Bush administration and redo the Northern Spotted Owl recovery plan. The Secretary based his decision, in part, on a report filed by the Interior's Inspector General (an independent investigative office within an agency or department that reports to the agency heads and to Congress.) The Inspector General concluded there was evidence of political interference in decisions about endangered species, including the spotted owl recovery plan. In May 2007, other scientists and I testified in the U.S. House of Representatives, Natural Resources Committee, in a hearing on political interference in the Endangered Species Act. We provided evidence that high ranking officials in the Bush administration interfered with or blocked scientific decisions on endangered species. That information, along with requests by members of congress, prompted investigations of decisions on the owl and other cases by the Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office, another investigative arm of government. These and other examples prompted President Obama to declare a new initiative on scientific integrity in March. Also on 16 July, the Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, Tom Strickland, stated that the Obama administration "will work with the scientific community to ensure that the spotted owl recovery plan lives up to its name, by accounting for scientific and technical reviews by prominent national scientific organizations, as well as forthcoming new data on the status of the spotted owl population. A solid, peer-reviewed recovery plan will provide a road map for the spotted owl's return to health, enabling us to designate critical habitat areas and help develop a forest management plan that meaningfully contributes to its recovery." According to the Obama administration, the redraft of the spotted owl recovery plan will take nine months while the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service corrects deficiencies noted in the peer review by SCB and other scientific societies. Upon completion of this redraft, the plan will be submitted again for peer review to the same societies and professionals involved in earlier reviews. In the coming year, SCB will continue to monitor this situation and determine how best to engage in peer review under the leadership of Michael Reed. For now, we are pleased that the administration has signaled a shift toward upholding scientific integrity in its decision making. Dominick DellaSala
Members can do a great deal to help SCB achieve its goal of applying the highest quality scientific counsel, analysis, and recommendations on conservation of biological diversity to inform and improve policy decisions of major international conventions, governments, organizations, and foundations. Our five policy priorities are climate change, scientific integrity, treaties, biological security, and investment and procurement. Of course, SCB members can work with their local chapter or Section to coordinate engagement on policy issues. Members also can become citizen scientists by talking directly to their legislators. Currently, educated citizens are debating whether, how, and how quickly to give up fossil fuels. You literally can show policy makers the ecological systems in their own districts that will be affected by climate change yet offer a means to help reduce undesirable impacts. Numerous sources of information listed on the policy page of SCB's website can assist you in communicating with legislators. Major issues to be decided in climate legislation and treaty negotiations include -- Magnitude, speed, and mechanisms for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and other forcing agents. -- Use of existing requirements and tools, such as the U.S. Clean Air Act and Endangered Species Act, versus new tools such as a potential proposal to eliminate hydrofluorocarbons by the parties to the Montreal Protocol on Ozone Depleting Substances. -- Potential limits on timber harvest or efforts to replant vegetation for carbon sequestration. -- Quantity and mechanisms to fund adaptation and conservation efforts in the United States and outside the country's borders. Citizens of the United States can access contact information for Senators at (202) 224-3121 or www.senate.gov. You can make appointments to visit them or members of their staff during the August break to discuss conservation issues that are your highest priorities. If you are not a U.S. citizen, consider contacting your representatives to emphasize the climate negotiations leading up to the December meetings in Copenhagen. Interns are making a real difference in SCB's policy program. Cameron Kovach, who began working with us after the 2008 annual meeting, has been accepted to the University of Vermont's Law School. Our work in early to mid 2009 has benefited from the expertise of intern Calen May Tobin, whose M.S. concentrated on tropical reforestation. We hope to begin working soon with more interns from graduate programs in the greater Washington, D.C. area and beyond. International Marine Conservation Congress Many of those attending the International Marine Conservation Congress in May participated in a brief course on the operations of Congress. The course was led by SCB's policy office, Marine Conservation Biology Institute, and Charlotte de Fontaubert, an expert on the Law of the Sea. With our help, course participants subsequently met with either staff of their own congressional leaders or with key committee staff and staff of the Congressional Research Service who concentrate on wildlife. We also discussed the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea with staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 2009 Annual Meeting and Upcoming European Congress Two sessions at SCB's annual meeting spoke to climate change and wildlife trade. I chaired a workshop on applying existing treaties and laws to climate mitigation. Jeff McNeely discussed use of existing conservation treaties to address climate change. Rodrigo Medellin explained that CITES is unusual in its power to constrain international trade in animal and plant products. In the session on wildlife trade, speakers explained the U.S. Pelly Amendment. The amendment's authority to implement trade warnings and, potentially, trade sanctions can be triggered by any citizen's petition of evidence that the citizens of a given nation are diminishing the effectiveness of an international conservation treaty. Materials from both sessions are posted on the policy page of SCB's website. At the upcoming European Congress on Conservation Biology, I and other SCB leaders will participate in two symposia addressing legal and practical evidentiary standards for policy and how the natural and social conservation sciences can better inform policy makers. Scientific Integrity SCB continues to cooperate with other scientific societies in requesting that the Obama Administration correct irregular decisions made under the Endangered Species Act by appointed officials in the previous administration. We are also focusing on revisions to consultation requirements under the Act. For example, we are encouraging a rigorous definition of "biological assessment." In addition, we aim to restore the global scope of the consultation process to ensure that actions of U.S. agencies outside the country's borders do not reduce the viability of listed species. Our recommendations to Obama's transition team were used by a coalition on scientific integrity and whistleblower protection that successfully urged the Senate to grant whistleblowers access to a jury trial if administrative investigation of alleged retaliation lasts more than 180 days. Investment and Procurement In the United States, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) uses taxpayer dollars to insure or guarantee business and industrial initiatives of U.S. corporations overseas. Congressional committees and conservation and legal groups invited SCB to help them draft language to better guide OPIC's environmental policies and practices. Our contributions are reflected in the new Senate Foreign Operations Appropriations bill and may appear in reports on OPIC reauthorization by the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate and the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House. We recently had preliminary discussions with two offices within the Treasury Department and several nongovernmental organizations, which requested SCB's assistance in reviewing the next version of the World Bank's energy policy. John Fitzgerald
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