Intelligent Tinkering: The Endangered Species Act and Resilience

Ecology and Society 17 (4): 28, 2012

8 Pages Posted: 9 Feb 2013

See all articles by Melinda Morgan

Melinda Morgan

Geography & Environmental Studies

Date Written: December 7, 2012

Abstract

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is one of the most powerful and controversial environmental laws in the United States. As a result of its uncompromising position against biodiversity loss, the ESA has become the primary driver of many ecological restoration efforts in the United States. This article explains why the ESA has become the impetus for so many of these efforts and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the ESA as a primary driver from a resilience-based perspective. It argues that in order to accommodate resilience theory, several changes to ESA implementation and enforcement should be made. First and foremost, there is a need to shift management strategies from a species-centered to a systems-based approach. Chief among the shifts required will be a more integrated approach to governance that includes a willingness to reassess demands placed on ecological systems by our social systems. Building resilience will also require more proactive management efforts that support the functioning of system processes before they are endangered and on the brink of regime change. Finally, resilience thinking requires a reorientation of management away from goals associated with achieving preservation, restoration, and optimization and toward goals associated with fostering complexity and adaptive capacity.

Keywords: resilience, social-ecological systems, Endangered Species Act, adaptive capacity

Suggested Citation

Morgan, Melinda, Intelligent Tinkering: The Endangered Species Act and Resilience (December 7, 2012). Ecology and Society 17 (4): 28, 2012 , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2213499

Melinda Morgan (Contact Author)

Geography & Environmental Studies ( email )

Albuquerque, NM 87131-1221
United States

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