The safe minimum standard of conservation and endangered species: a review

The safe minimum standard (SMS) approach is a collective choice process tha t prescribes protecting a minimum level of a renewable natural resource unl ess the social costs of doing so are somehow excessive or intolerably high. Arguments for the SMS are typically invoked in settings involving consider able uncertainty and potentially irreversible losses. However, the SMS is m ost commonly viewed as existing only on the periphery of thought in traditi onal environmental and resource economics. The specific objectives are: (1) to define the SMS approach generally and examine theoretical support, part icularly for its application in endangered species decision settings; (2) t o examine the relationship between an SMS approach and benefit-cost analysi s (BCA); (3) to examine the relationship between an SMS approach and nonmar ket valuation; (4) to compare an SMS approach to alternative definitions of sustainability; and (5) to review the general consistency of the SMS appro ach with the USA's Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973, as amended. Recent attention on this pragmatic policy approach has been something far greater than cursory, with advances and detailed discussions on theoretical consid erations, philosophical underpinnings and case study applications. While th e SMS emerges as a fairly coarse policy instrument, its pragmatic value is seen in complex environmental policy applications, such as endangered speci es protection.