Congress envisioned a network of international, national, State, and private organizations working together toward common goals. The Act was passed to provide a means to conserve the ecosystems upon which endangered and threatened species depend and to provide a program for the conservation of these species. The Act further declared that the policy of Congress is for all Federal departments and agencies to seek to conserve endangered and threatened species and that they shall use their own authorities in furtherance of the purposes of the Act. One of the major amendments made more specific the general requirement that the Secretaries of the Interior and Commerce develop and implement recovery plans. The amendment further directs the Secretaries to report every 2 years on the status of efforts to develop and implement recovery plans for all listed species and on the status of all species for which recovery plans have been developed.
Recovery is the cornerstone and ultimate purpose of the endangered species program.
Recovery is the process by which the decline of an endangered or threatened species is arrested or reversed, and threats to its survival are neutralized, so that its long-term survival in nature can be ensured. The goal of this process is to restore listed species to a point where they are secure, self-sustaining components of their ecosystem so as to allow delisting. The Secretary of the Interior has delegated responsibility for endangered and threatened species recovery to the Fish and Wildlife Service. This report is the second Report to Congress on the status of the recovery program for federally listed endangered and threatened species under the Secretary of the Interior's jurisdiction. This second Report to Congress differs from the 1990 report in a few ways.