EDF Trumpets Support For Funding of ESA Incentives

(3 November, 1997 — Washington) The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) today released a letter signed by fifteen national environmental and landowner organizations which calls for guaranteed funding of the landowner incentives provisions contained in S.1180, the Endangered Species Recovery Act. The letter, addressed to Senator Trent Lott (R-MS), is part of an effort to make clear to the Senate that though a wide range of views still exists about efforts to reauthorize the Endangered Species Act (ESA), support for guaranteed funding for the landowner incentives contained in S. 1180 cuts across that range of views.

“On this one issue, there is clear agreement,” said Steve Cochran, EDF’s legislative director. “The Senate should, and politically it can, provide guaranteed funding for these incentives. As is stated in the letter, ‘The promise of these new programs will never be realized … unless they are funded.’ “

S. 1180 authorizes significant new programs to provide incentives — in the form of cost-sharing assistance — to private landowners who agree to carry out management practices to help endangered species. These incentives for private landowners are essential because the active management needed by many endangered species can be expensive, and because the majority of species protected by the ESA have most of their habitat on private land. These cost-sharing programs will specifically help landowners who might otherwise be unable to bear the costs of carrying out essential actions for improving the well-being of endangered species. However, the potential benefits of these new provisions will only be realized if the programs are assured of substantial funding.