Monarch butterfly populations are declining and the species has been considered for listing as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. Companies and organizations across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico are collaborating to develop conservation strategies to help monarchs and other pollinators. A group of 40+ partners from across the energy and transportation sectors in the U.S. have developed a Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA) to promote voluntary conservation action among non-federal landowners. CCAAs are regulatory mechanisms that encourage landowners and managers to adopt measures that create net conservation benefits in exchange for assurances that no additional requirements beyond the CCAA will be mandated if the monarch butterfly becomes listed. The University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) and the Rights-of-Way as Habitat Working Group developed the collaborative CCAA for energy and transportation lands across entire U.S. (lower 48 states) ahead of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's listing determination for monarchs in June 2019.
Transportation agencies maintain millions of acres of lands that can sustain habitat for the monarch butterfly, including connecting favorable landscapes, providing more diverse breeding and feeding habitat compared to surrounding landscapes (e.g., intensively-managed agricultural lands), and offering areas that are generally safe from major disturbances or future development. Thoughtful management of these transportation corridors and other lands can benefit insect pollinators like the monarch butterfly and other wildlife in need, while maintaining safety, reliability, and operational flexibility.
This presentation will explore the variety of regulatory mechanisms, including CCAAs, that can be used to promote voluntary conservation. The monarch butterfly CCAA will be used as a case study to demonstrate the valuable opportunities and factors that make such industry collaboratives successful. Lessons in terms of building buy-in, engaging with government agencies, making the business case, and quantifying biological and species benefits will be addressed.
As the largest such agreement in history, the monarch CCAA represents an unprecedented opportunity for collaborative conservation, including :
-Regulatory certainty in the face of a potential monarch butterfly listing determination;
-Flexible mechanism to engage in voluntary conservation for the monarch butterfly and other pollinators;
-Reduced impacts to operations and project schedules and streamlined Section 7 consultations;
-Demonstrated conservation commitments collectively provided by the transportation and energy sectors;
-Successful cross-sector partnership with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; and
-Model for other at-risk species and in other industries.