Environmental champions and conservationists will mark the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act later this month. That is the law requiring federal agencies to use all methods necessary to prevent extinctions and ensure that federal actions not jeopardize the continued existence of species on the brink of disappearing from the face of the Earth.
In the leadup to the December 27th anniversary, several publications have begun examining the Act’s history and impact over five decades.
Science, the world’s third-most influential scholarly journal based on Google Scholar citations, invited experts from around the country to look ahead as well for its Insights Policy Forum. Indiana University Maurer School of Law Professor Rob Fischman is the lead author on one of those pieces. The result can be found in the December 21 issue of Science.
Fischman and Vanderbilt Law’s J.B. Ruhl examine the role of science in preventing extinctions and discusses how scientific advancements pose new challenges to and opportunities for improving the implementation of the law.
They argue that agencies need to go beyond the conservation biology, genetics, and other life sciences if they are to succeed in their congressional mandate to prevent extinctions.
One of Fischman’s main points is that the Endangered Species Act’s emphasis on “best available science” should encompass the lessons of the social sciences.
He draws from the work of Indiana University’s late Nobel Laureate, Elinor Ostrom, to show how to encourage more collaborative conservation successes. He argues that an important research priority should be “to understand better how to prompt human behavioral changes.”
Like all environmental law, the ESA “is—first and foremost—law governing humans, not the forces of nature,” the authors conclude.
Fischman is one of the few legal experts who regularly publishes in both law and scientific, peer-reviewed, publications, making him a natural choice to lead this effort.
Science has been at the center of important scientific discovery since its founding in 1880. It is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s oldest and largest general science organization.