Economic Impacts of Designating Critical Habitat Under the U.S. Endangered Species Act: Case Study of the Canada Lynx (Lynx Canadensis)

Conservation of species and their habitats yields economic benefits to society. The principal U.S. species conservation law, the Endangered Species Act (ESA), requires the designation of critical habitat for ESA-listed species. The ESA provides room for economic analysis to enter conservation decisions by stipulating that the decision to designate a particular area take into account the resulting economic impact. Unfortunately, the agencies implementing the ESA generally do not quantify the benefits of designation in their economic analyses, arguing that uncertainties associated with monetary quantification of benefits are too large. We examined that argument in a case study of critical habitat designation for the Canada lynx. We found that well-established valuation methodologies allow quantification of many of the benefits of designation. We further found that expected benefits of designation surpass expected costs in seven of our eight scenarios. This underscores the importance of including benefits in...