Reconciling Norm Conflict in Endangered Species Conservation on Private Land.

"As If Equity Mattered" was the theme of the 2009 Berkeley symposium that resulted in the articles collected in this issue of the Natural Resources Journal. In this article we argue that for some aspects of natural resource policy, equity already matters a great deal. The challenge is understanding how policymakers and citizens deal with conflicting ideas about equity in a given policy context. This article considers the role of conflicting equity norms in public policy, with special attention to the protection of endangered species on private lands. After a brief review of the limited attention to norms and normative conflict in dominant understandings of the policy process, we review the role of two important normative ideas in endangered species conservation: an intrinsic norm of ownership as an individual right subject only to limited government interference, and an intrinsic normative duty to prevent extinction, regardless of a species' utility or practical value. Tracing the prominence of these norms in endangered species policy back to the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973, we document in more detail the broad support for both ideas of "equity" among current private landowners affected by endangered species regulations in several locations across the United States. Our conclusion is that both norms remain highly salient, if in some tension, leaving many landowners with strong views about property rights receptive to the idea of cooperative efforts to protect species on private land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]