The Endangered Species Act is widely considered the strongest law in the world for protecting imperiled species. Unfortunately, there is very little information to systematically and quantitatively assess the status of ESA-listed species. We describe a method to score the biological and threat status of species, as well as guidance to help FWS biologists implement scoring.
As the previous Director in the Center for Conservation Innovation at Defenders, Jacob led CCI’s work at the intersection of science, technology, and policy to improve conservation outcomes, especially for threatened and endangered species.