	Background

The Congress enacted the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to prevent the  extinction of threatened or endangered plant and animal species. Service Headquarters Budgets and Allocates Its Endangered Species Program Funds by Program Area

Congress provides funding for the endangered species program through the  resource management appropriations account. The Service maintains these distinct program area budgets  as it allocates funds to the regional office, doing so in two steps. For example,  in the consultation program area, the Service follows two methodologies  when allocating funds:  (1) funds for consultations with federal agencies  and habitat conservation planning with nonfederal groups are allocated  according to the weighted number of candidate, proposed, and listed  species found in each region, and (2) a set amount every year ($2 million in  fiscal year 2001) is allocated across regional offices for implementing and  monitoring habitat conservation plans based on specific formulas that take  into account such factors as the size of the planning area and the number of  participating partners. These percentages do not reflect the time field staff  spent on general endangered species program activities (see footnote 4). Litigation Drove Listing Workload

Section 4 of the Endangered Species Act requires the Service to list any  species that is at risk of extinction. For fiscal year 2001, field staff reported spending 10 percent of their total  time devoted to the endangered species program on listing activities, with  51 percent of this time on adding new species to the threatened or  endangered species list and 49 percent spent on designating critical  habitats. A Service official acknowledged that the cost to  implement the landowner incentives program was partially borne by the  candidate conservation and recovery programs. Table 5 presents information on the percentage of time field staff spent on  the major activities within each program area (consultation, recovery,  candidate conservation, listing, landowner incentives) in fiscal year 2001.
What GAO Found

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 was enacted to conserve plant and animal species facing extinction as well as their habitats. The act requires that at-risk species that may be candidates for listing and conservation efforts be identified and listed as threatened or endangered, critical habitat that requires special management be identified, proposed projects that could harm the listed species be mitigated, and plans to improve the status of listed species until they no longer need protection be developed and implemented. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) established an endangered species program within its ecological services program to implement the requirements of the act. The Service budgets separately allocates its endangered species program funds by distinct subcategories corresponding to the program areas of recovery, consultation, candidate conservation, listing, and landowner incentives. The Service maintains these allocations by program area as it distributes funds from headquarters to its regional offices and again as the regional offices distribute funds to their field offices. GAO's survey results showed that in fiscal year 2001, of the total time field staff spent on specific endangered species program activities, consultation accounted for 42 percent and recovery accounted for 28 percent. The remaining 30 percent was spent on candidate conservation, landowner incentives, and listing. These percentages do not reflect the time field staff spent on general endangered species program activities.