46 Views 4 Downloads
A critical, yet underattended, feature of the biodiversity crisis is the
contraction of geographic range experienced by most studied terrestrial
vertebrates. In the United States, the primary policy tool for mitigating
the biodiversity crisis is the Endangered Species Act (ESA). For the past
two decades, the federal agencies that administer the ESA have interpreted
the act in a manner that precludes treating this geographic element of the
crisis. Therefore, the burden of mitigating the biodiversity crisis
largely falls on state wildlife agencies, which are obligated to operate
on behalf of the interests of their constituents. We present survey
research indicating that most constituents expect state agencies to
prioritize species restoration over other activities, including hunting.
This prioritization holds even among self-identified hunters, which is
significant since state agencies often take the provisioning of hunting
opportunities as their top priority. By prioritizing rewilding efforts
that restore native species instead, state agencies could unify hunting
and non-hunting constituents while simultaneously stemming the
biodiversity crisis.
46 views reported since publication in 2023.