Bert Harris, a native of Alabama who is undertaking his Ph.D. with the University of Adelaide's Environment Institute and School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, led a group of researchers in comparing the ESA list of endangered species with the world's leading threatened species list, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List in an article published in the latest issue of Conservation Letters.
Harris and his colleagues found 531 American species on the IUCN Red List that have not made the ESA protection list.
The ESA is poorly administered in the United States. The statutes could be affective in finding and protecting endangered species but the administration is left to state authorities in most instances.
Alabama’s pro industry government and tireless efforts to defeat any environmental work that does not bring money to the state is one of the reasons that "The study has found that of the American species included on the IUCN Red List, 40% of birds, 50% of mammals, and 80-95% of other species such as amphibians, gastropods, crustaceans, and insects, were not recognised by the ESA as threatened."
The research was reported at the Science Daily web site on December 12, 2011.
Journal Reference:
J. Berton C. Harris, J. Leighton Reid, Brett R. Scheffers, Thomas C. Wanger, Navjot S. Sodhi, Damien A. Fordham, Barry W. Brook. Conserving imperiled species: a comparison of the IUCN Red List and U.S. Endangered Species Act. Conservation Letters, 2011; DOI: 10.1111/j.1755-263X.2011.00205.x
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