Endangered Species Law & Policy

On October 16, 2015, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced the signing of a conservation agreement intended to provide greater protections and more flexibility in the management of impacts to sensitive species and their habitats.  The conservation agreement, called the Durability Agreement, will allow CDFW to use BLM lands for various conservation actions, and occasionally for project-level mitigation to meet California state standards.  The Durability Agreement, developed during coordination between CDFW and BLM on the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, covers 15 million acres of BLM lands in California, which provide important habitat for sensitive species.  Under the Durability Agreement, BLM lands may be used to compensate for impacts to wildlife that cannot be avoided or minimized at the project level, and to provide for greater wildlife connectivity between habitat areas and genetically diverse populations of sensitive species.