  Studies | Environment  No. 303 Saturday, September 01, 2007 by
Brian Seasholes  Real Reform of the Endangered Species Act  The
only substantive way to reform the ESA is to remove the Act's
punishing provisions.  Common sense and economics indicate that
if you want more of something you reward it.  At the very least,
you don't punish people for providing it.  There are several
very good reasons to believe that a non-punitive, nonregulatory
approach to endangered species conservation will work.  First, a
nonregulatory ESA would eliminate the perverse incentives for
landowners to destroy habitat or avoid reintroducing species
they fear might be listed under the Act.  The cases of Ben Cone
and David Cameron vividly illustrate these circumstances.
Second, a nonregulatory ESA could look much like the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's Conservation Reserve Program or
Wetlands Reserve Program, under which the federal government
pays farmers not to cultivate environmentally sensitive land. “I
think this [the Conserva