SAN FRANCISCO, CA — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed six imperiled birds from around the world as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act Wednesday. Fourteen years after first determining these species warranted protection, the Service finally responded to a series of lawsuits by the Center for Biological Diversity and listed the black stilt (New Zealand), caerulean paradise-flycatcher (Indonesia), giant ibis (Laos, Cambodia), Gurney's pitta (Burma, Thailand), long-legged thicketbird (Fiji), and Socorro mockingbird (Mexico) as endangered species.

"The long overdue Endangered Species Act listings can make an important difference in the struggle to save these vanishing bird species," said Jeff Miller with the Center for Biological Diversity. "Scores more of the world's rarest and most threatened bird species have been waiting for Endangered Species Act listing for over two decades, and it has required two lawsuits so far to get the Fish and Wildlife Service to take action toward listing these birds."

Listing international species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act restricts buying and selling of imperiled wildlife, increases conservation funding and attention, and adds scrutiny to projects proposed by U.S. government and multilateral lending agencies such as the World Bank.

The sad saga of the Service's refusal to protect more than 50 of the world's most imperiled bird species dates from 1980 and 1991, when ornithologists began submitting Endangered Species Act petitions to protect some of the world's rarest birds. The Service determined these six species warranted listing in 1994 but illegally delayed responding to the petitions. The Center filed suit in 2004, forcing the agency to issue a long-overdue finding that 51 additional foreign birds warranted protection. At least five other petitioned bird species have gone extinct during the long delay in protecting them.

In 2004, the Service claimed listing was "precluded" by higher-priority listing actions for all the birds except for these six species. Despite finding that the six birds warranted listing, the Service refused to issue a proposed listing rule until 2006, after the Center sued again. In December 2006, the Service published a proposed listing rule for six other of the remaining 45 bird species, imperiled seabirds from New Zealand, Fiji, New Guinea, and the Galapagos Islands.

"The Bush administration has the worst record in the history of the Endangered Species Act," said Peter Galvin, conservation director with the Center for Biological Diversity. "In fact, the Fish and Wildlife Service has not listed any species under the Act in 617 days, nor any during Dirk Kempthorne's tenure as secretary of the interior - a new record, surpassing even that of the Reagan administration's 382 days of no species listed." The Bush administration has listed just 58 species compared to 522 by the Clinton administration and 234 by Bush Senior.

The Bush administration continues to illegally delay protection for species on the Endangered Species Act "candidate" list - the official federal list of the most imperiled but unprotected U.S. species. Between 1973 and 1994, 85 species went extinct due to delays in granting federal protection, and 24 of these were on the candidate list. The Endangered Species Act stipulates that protection can only be delayed via the candidate list if the Service is making "expeditious progress" in placing "higher priority" species on the threatened and endangered lists - which does not appear to be happening. In December 2007, the Service's annual publication of the candidate list showed it contained 280 species.

Contact Info:

Jeff Miller
Tel : 510-499-9185

Website : the Center for Biological Diversity