Endangered Animals Facing Tough Times

With the economy being worse then we've seen in recent future, conservation efforts for endangered animals are paying the price. Even domesticated animals are feeling some very adverse effects of this economy, but now the money that was supposed to go to fund conservation projects like the one for the Coachella Valley's habitat conservation plan is just not there anymore because of this horrible economic state.

Conservation plans themselves are double edged swords because developers, mining companies, manufacturing plants etc are able to sign into these agreements to build and pollute the land and habitats of endangered animals, just as long as they give money to save other habitats and conservation efforts for related endangered animals:

"Private landowners, corporations, State or local governments, Tribes or other non-Federal landowners who are interested in conducting activities that might incidentally harm (or "take") endangered or threatened wildlife on their land are required to obtain an incidental take permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to provide protection from violating the Endangered Species Act."

http://www.fws.gov/Endangered/hcp/index.html

Conservation plans list the impacts to the species that will occur; the steps taken to minimize and mitigate the incidental take; the funding available to give to the conservation for the endangered species; alternative actions that we considered, but not taken; and other necessary and appropriate measures. Once these conservation plans are approved money is exchanged that will to towards saving habitats and endangered species in other areas.

Because the economy is so bad, however, very few companies are expanding and even fewer are signing into conservation plans that will ultimately save habitats and endangered animals. This practice has been going on for over 20 years, and has turned out to be a great help for endangered species. Now that the economy is weak, the endangered species of the U.S. are running out of funding and their habitats will not have the monetary resources needed to protect their habitats from disease, infestation, and human effects.