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NPCC Fact Sheet:
Equal Protection for Plants Sign-on Statement
SPEAK OUT! Ask Your Elected for Equal Protection for Plants! Remember - they work for you. Ask them to provide equal funding, staffing and legal protection for all species. For more information, see the NPCC Summary Report on Barriers to Native Plant Conservation or our federal budget Testimony To find e mail addresses and telephone numbers for your
NPCC Special Report: Legislative and Budgetary Barriers to Native Plant Protection Equal Protection for Plants Campaign House Legislation Protecting Wildlife From Climate Change Excludes Plants See our Press Release Read our LETTER to Congress Read the legislative language excluding plants.
______________________________________ For Immediate Release, September 18, 2007 Contact: Emily B. Roberson, Center for Biological Diversity Native Plant Conservation Campaign, (415) 970-0394 Plant Science and Conservation Groups Ask Congress to Add Plants to Legislation Protecting Wildlife From Climate Change WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today the Native Plant Conservation Campaign, Ecological Society of America, Botanical Society of America, American Society of Plant Taxonomists, and the American Society for Horticultural Science sent a letter asking Congressional leaders to add provisions to protect plants to new legislation designed to help wildlife survive threats from global climate change. The Native Plant Conservation Campaign is a program of the Center for Biological Diversity. The campaign is a network of 38 native-plant societies, botanical gardens, and other plant science and conservation organizations representing more than 80,000 individual plant scientists and enthusiasts nationwide. The request addresses the Global Warming Wildlife Survival Act, a section of the Energy Independence, National Security, and Consumer Protection Act. The legislation passed the House this summer and may soon be considered by the Senate. The Act contains groundbreaking provisions that would direct federal agencies to develop strategies to assist wildlife affected by global warming. But it does not allow the agencies to develop strategies for the thousands of plants also at risk from climate change. “While we applaud this step forward in addressing the impacts of climate change on wildlife, the most effective conservation strategies must be designed at the ecosystem level — to include plants, wildlife, and their habitats,” said Dr. Norman Christensen, president of the Ecological Society of America. “Because of complex interactions among species, it is imperative to employ protection for plants as well as wildlife to ensure the health of ecosystems and their resilience to climate change.” “Plants are the foundation of life on this planet, and critical to human welfare,” said Dr. Emily Roberson, director of the Native Plant Conservation Campaign. “Through photosynthesis, plants generate the oxygen we breathe and create the fuel for life. Their roots help clean the water we drink, and they supply foods, fibers, medicines and countless other products and commodities we depend on for survival, jobs, and economic security.” "Horticulturalists value native plants, not only for their aesthetic value in the landscape, but for their present and potential contributions as medicinal plants and new crops. In addition, native plants worldwide are an important source of genetic diversity for breeders of both ornamental and crop plants," said Dr. Mary Peet, president of the American Society of Horticultural Science. Scientists are already identifying numerous plants that may be lost to climate change. These include delicate mountain wildflowers like the deep-yellow snow buttercup and bright blue sky pilot as well as alpine forest types like spruce/fir in New England — all of which may disappear completely as mountaintops warm. Coastal plants are also at risk as sea levels rise. Some mangrove forests, for example, may be wiped out, causing serious problems in areas like Florida where mangroves have protected coasts from hurricanes and floods and created habitat essential to multi-billion dollar fisheries and other industries. The omission of plants from the Global Warming Wildlife Survival Act is part of a broader trend. Plants are often treated as “second-class conservation citizens” in the United States; funding and legal requirements for their conservation are substantially lower than for animal species. Nearly 60 percent of species listed under the Endangered Species Act are plants, but less than three percent of federal endangered species funding goes to plants. One example is the federally funded Wildlife Action Plan program, which provides money for state species and habitat conservation projects. More than $400 million was disbursed by the program between 2001 and 2006, but not a dollar went to plants since federal law explicitly prohibits states from using Wildlife Action Plan funds for plant conservation (unless such conservation comes as a byproduct of "wildlife" conservation projects). “No scientific evidence supports the contention that meaningful conservation of wildlife or habitats can be accomplished in the absence of vigorous plant conservation,” said Roberson. “If it is to achieve its goals, this landmark energy legislation, like all conservation laws and policies, must provide equal protection for the plant kingdom. barriers to native plant conservation in the United states: Funding, Staffing, Law Summary. (Read the Full Report ) Plants are primary foundations of life on earth. Plants produce foods, fibers and medicines that fuel our economies and sustain our societies. Plants anchor the ecosystems that we depend on for invaluable services including water purification, crop pollination, and erosion control. Few people realize, however, the importance of plants to ecosystems, societies or economies. When they think of nature, they tend to focus on charismatic animals such as bears, eagles and hummingbirds. Few make the basic connection between bears and the native grasses and berries they eat, or between hummingbirds and nectar-bearing flowers. Even fewer link ecosystem services such as oxygen production with photosynthesis or water quality maintenance with the wetland plants that maintain it. Unfortunately, an imbalance has developed in laws, budgets and policies which treat native plants as second class conservation citizens. As a result, native plants lose ground daily to sprawl, pollution, invasive exotic organisms, and, most tragically, to neglect. This report documents the neglect of native plant conservation in the United States in three key areas: (i) unequal implementation of species conservation laws (ii) understaffing in federal resource and land management agencies (iii) unequal protection under state and federal endangered species law Unless these obstacles are removed so that plant conservation programs can be effective and successful, efforts to conserve native species and ecosystems that depend on native plants are doomed to failure. Findings Imperilment* is Extreme · According to state heritage programs, there are more than three times as many imperiled plants in the U.S. as imperiled animals. Fully one third of our flora is considered to be at risk of extinction. · Almost 60% of species listed under the Federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) are plants – roughly 700 taxa. Endangered Species Laws are not Implemented · Imperiled plants are half as likely to receive listing protection under the ESA as imperiled animals. · Of the roughly 700 plants that are listed under the ESA, only 4% have habitat protection through federal designation of critical habitat. · The federal government spends 25 times more towards recovery of animals listed under the ESA than towards plant recovery programs. Botany Understaffing · Botany staffing in federal agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Forest Service is wholly inadequate to meet legal, scientific, or management requirements for native plant species and communities. The BLM employs only 68 botanists nationwide to manage 264 million acres (1 botanist per 4 million acres). The Forest Service employed only 128 botanists nationwide in 2001. At the same time, nearly 3,000 foresters (who primarily manage commercial timber) were on staff. Botany understaffing means that some of the many imperiled plants in the U.S. are disappearing from public lands simply due to lack of personnel to perform routine, and legally required, surveys and monitoring. Unequal Protection under Law · The ESA provides much weaker protection for listed plants than for listed animals. Although it is illegal to kill any listed animal without a permit, under current law many federally listed plants can be deliberately killed without a permit and with no requirements for mitigation. This destruction is happening day after day throughout the U.S. · At the state level, only 29 state endangered species acts provide any protection for plants. Recommendations We propose the following action plan to address these deficiencies in state and federal plant conservation law, budgets, staffing and policy:
*
Throughout this report, ‘imperiled species’ are defined as those with a
global conservation status rank of G1 (critically imperiled), G2
(imperiled), or G3 (vulnerable). Imperiled species may or may not be
listed under the ESA.
In
2002, the Califonia Native Plant Society and the Native Plant Conservation Campaign
have launched an Equal
Protection for Plants Campaign. Our longterm goals are to amend FESA, improve
budgets, and change state species protection laws where necessary, to provide plants with
the same protections and recovery opportunities that are currently provided to other
listed species. We have launched a public education campaign and a petition drive to build
support for this idea. Fact Sheets:
Open Letter
calling for Plants
and animals contribute equally to the stability, health, and functions of the ecosystems
on which we all depend for survival. However, plants and animals are not treated equally
under the Federal Endangered Species Act. Federally
listed plant species are among the rarest and most imperiled species in our nation. But
although the Federal Endangered Species Act prohibits the unauthorized destruction or even
harm of Federally listed animals everywhere they occur, it allows many listed plants to be
killed, without limit, on non-Federal lands, except in restricted circumstances*. In fact,
some plant species can be knowingly driven to extinction without violating the Federal
Act. Lesser
protection for plants is unsupportable biologically. It disregards our current
understanding that plants and animals are inextricably intertwined in the structure and
functioning of healthy ecosystems. Unless
plant species are protected from extinction as vigorously as animals, efforts to conserve
biological diversity will inevitably fail. Plants and animals depend upon each other for
food, habitat, indeed for their very survival. We cannot arbitrarily pick only one kingdom
to protect. Ecosystems cannot survive with only one group or the other. For these
reasons, the undersigned organizations urge that the Federal Endangered Species Act be
amended to provide the same protection for plants that it currently provides for animals
through all of its policies, programs, and penalties. Signed (as of October 5, 2007),
*Section
9 (a) (1) of FESA (16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) gives animals full protection from
destruction “within the United States or the territorial sea of the United
States” or “upon the high seas”. But Section 9 (a) (2) (B) of FESA
prohibits destruction of Federally listed plant species only on “areas under Federal jurisdiction”.
Plants also cannot be killed in knowing violation
of state law, while trespassing, or in violation of Section 7 of FESA which governs
Federal agency actions. Therefore, listed plants are only protected (1) on Federal lands or during activities that are funded, permitted, or carried out by a Federal agency and are therefore under Federal jurisdiction, or (2) in the unlikely event that it can be proved that they are destroyed in knowing violation of state law or during trespassing. Logging, housing development, mining, and other activities may all kill unlimited numbers of Federally listed plants, even cause extinction of a species, as long as the destruction does not meet these conditions.
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