The Dunes Sagebrush Lizard (Sceloporus arenicolus) (DSL) is a habitat specialist, living only in shinnery oak dune habitat in southeastern New Mexico and western Texas. This habitat is also home to significant oil and gas operations. Habitat conversion and fragmentation, largely resulting from industrial activity, have pushed the DSL to the brink of extinction. In 1982 the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) found that the DSL had already lost 85% of its habitat and in two more decades would lose an additional 40%. As a result of this threat, FWS, also in 1982, announced that the DSL would soon need protection under the Endangered Species Act. However, over three decades later, after continued habitat destruction, neither the Endangered Species Act nor any other mandatory federal rules protect the species
Through interviews, analysis of policy documents, public communications, and judicial opinions, this research seeks to understand why a species so clearly deserving of conservation according to federal law has gone unprotected and how conservation advocates can avoid oversights of this nature in the future.
Results/Conclusions
This research identifies 3 reasons FWS did not protect the DSL: (1) A new conservation strategy has emerged, prioritizing collaborative conservation, in which activists and industry partner without government involvement; (2) As a result of this strategy, industries impacting conservation are empowered to substitute their own strategies for legally enforceable protections; (3) courts adopt collaborative-conservation rhetoric and are more likely to support private initiatives over government regulations.
In the case of the DSL, FWS declined to protect the lizard in deference to a voluntary conservation plan operated by the oil and gas industry. One environmental group highly praised this decision. A court later affirmed the industry plan and in so doing, echoed the language of that environmental group, demonstrating the legal impact of advocacy strategy.
Without regulatory safeguards, over 2,000 acres of DSL habitat have been destroyed under the voluntary plan. Much of this destruction went unreported and industry did not complete restoration. This research studies a unique failure. But there are lessons in failure. In addition to reporting these findings, this research turns its findings into a 9-point framework for helping advocacy organizations balance the benefits of collaboration with the need to champion effective and lasting conservation strategies.