Endangered species mitigation banking: promoting recovery through habitat conservation planning under the Endangered Species Act

The Endangered Species Act has fostered considerable controversy surroundin g its regulation of privately owned endangered species habitat. Private lan downers believe that the law wrongly requires them to bear the burden of pr oviding endangered species habitat on their property. At the same time, con servation of privately owned habitat is critical to the conservation of mos t endangered species. In order to resolve endangered species conflicts on p rivate lands, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has been promoting the use o f 'habitat conservation plans' which allow some loss of endangered species habitat in exchange for activities which minimize and mitigate for the loss . These plans have come under increasing criticism from environmentalists a nd conservation biologists who argue that the plans are contributing to the continued loss of endangered species habitat. This paper proposes that mit igation banking of endangered species habitat may provide a useful tool to resolve endangered species conflicts on private lands while concurrently ad vancing the recovery of endangered species. Mitigation banking would allow landowners seeking a permit to destroy endangered species habitat to mitiga te the loss by buying mitigation credits from other private landowners who restore and/or protect suitable habitat. Mitigation banking has the potenti al to increase mitigation alternatives for the regulated community while pr oviding a needed economic incentive for other landowners to restore and pro tect important habitats. From an ecological perspective, mitigation banking could allow for the exchange of fragmented habitats with little long range viability for habitats that are strategically located and can contribute t o species' recovery. The paper concludes with a discussion of several quest ions that need further analysis in considering banking of endangered specie s habitat. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.