(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
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Biden Administration Restores Wildlife Protections Weakened Under Trump [1]
['Catrin Einhorn']
Date: 2024-03-28
After three years of planning and navigating the slow bureaucracy of federal rule-making, the Biden administration is restoring a series of protections for imperiled animals and plants that had been loosened under President Donald J. Trump.
The rules, proposed last year and now finalized, give federal officials more leeway to protect species in a changing climate; bring back protections for animals that are classified as “threatened” with extinction, which is one step short of “endangered”; and clarify that decisions about whether to list a species must be made without considering economic factors.
They come as countries around the world grapple with a biodiversity crisis that has taken hold as humans have transformed the planet.
“As species face new and daunting challenges, including climate change, degraded and fragmented habitat, invasive species, and wildlife disease, the Endangered Species Act is more important than ever to conserve and recover imperiled species now and for generations to come,” said Martha Williams, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which issued the finalized rules along with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries service. “These revisions underscore our commitment to using all of the tools available to help halt declines and stabilize populations of the species most at-risk.”
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/28/climate/endangered-species-rules-regulations.html
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