Habitat Protection

Habitat protection refers to a range of human-initiated approaches, strategies, and interventions to avoid the potentially detrimental consequences of anthropogenic activities—such as harvesting, gathering, hunting, logging, mining, agriculture, and residential or commercial development—to habitats (the abiotic and biotic components) necessary for the survival of species deemed significant. In many cases, early protection efforts targeted the habitats of species with particular utilitarian value, such as charismatic wildlife or game animals; and unusual and rare species endangered or threatened with extinction. Historically, these efforts have been overwhelmingly focused on terrestrial species, neglecting freshwater and marine environments, and were undertaken by agencies of the nation–state, or in some parts of the world, by colonial administrators. For example, the U.S. Endangered Species Act largely has incorporated a species-specific management ...