ENVIRONMENTAL legislation passed by the US house of representatives last week will have dire consequences for endangered species. It shifts the balance away from protecting them in favour of giving private landowners more rights to do as they please, conservationists say.
The Endangered Species Act, passed in 1973, was a pioneering piece of environmental legislation (see “Current Act”). “It was the first of its kind,” says Ginette Hemsley, vice-president for species conservation at the WWF-US in Washington DC. “At that time no other country in the world had really made an effort to put together a comprehensive law to deal with protecting species and their critical habitats.” The act has served…
