Public participation in the development of a CCAA project will only be granted with the consent of the participating owner. However, the Service will provide any proposed agreements for public review and comment as part of the public assessment process required by law to grant related approval to improve survival. This comment period is usually 30 days. The public will also have other opportunities to review the CCAAs in certain cases. For example, if the service receives an agreement for a species proposed for listing and determines, based on a preliminary assessment, that the agreement could potentially justify the removal of the proposed rule for listing species under the ESA, the comment period for the proposed rule will be extended or reopened, allow the public to comment on the relevance of the CCA in eliminating or reducing threats to the species. However, the timelines under the ESA may prevent the service from taking into account, in its final registration, CCAAs that have not been received within a reasonable time after the adoption of the proposed rule. Candidate Retention Agreement with Insurance means a candidate retention agreement with a non-federal owner that meets the standards described in this policy and provides the owner with the assurances described in this policy. (6) Throughout the Directive, we have, where appropriate, added language to improve the status of the species covered after referring to the `net conservation benefit` in order to clarify the requirements of a CCAA, as FWS or NMFS biologists, applicants or consultants under the CCA cannot use the definition section of the Directive. We also included “CCAA” before “specific conservation measures” in several places in the directive to avoid potential misunderstanding of “cumulative benefits” other than those associated with the CCAA.
Our Answer: CCAAs and SHA are designed to incentivize landowners to restore, improve or maintain habitats and/or populations of candidate species or listed species in a manner that results in a net benefit to those species. We agree that the proposed slightly different definition of “net conservation benefit” for CCAAs is confusing, and we align the definition of our final rule and policy with that of our long-standing definition of “net conservation benefit” in the CASA context to eliminate this inconsistency and confusion. We also determined that this measure meets the standards for invoking categorical exclusion under NOAA Administrative Order 216-A. NAO 216-6A replaced NAO 216-6 (20. May 1999), but temporarily left the categorical exclusions in NAO 216-6 until they were replaced by an authorized NAO 216-6A accompanying manual, which is still ongoing. Therefore, this policy was assessed based on the categorical exclusions of NAO 216-6. In particular, the Directive falls within two categorical exclusion provisions of § 6.03c.3 (i) – for “the development of regulations, orders, manuals or other guidelines that implement such documents or other guidelines but do not substantially modify” and for “policies, regulations and policy directives of an administrative, financial, legal, technical or procedural nature”. NAO 216-6, § 6.03c.3(i). The policy would not trigger an exception that would exclude the use of categorical exclusions, as it does not concern a geographic area with unique characteristics, is not subject to public controversy due to potential environmental impacts, does not result in uncertain environmental impacts or unique or unknown risks, does not set a precedent or policy decision on future proposals.
have no significant cumulative effects and no adverse effects on endangered or threatened species or their habitats. Id. § 5.05c. As such, it is categorically excluded from the need for an environmental assessment. Comment (5): Several commenters stressed that the FWS should not delete the phrase “exclusion or elimination of any need for listing” – believing that this change suggests that the purpose of the CCAAs and the Directive is no longer to exclude or eliminate the need for a list of a species. The possibility of a CCAA excluding registration is an important incentive for landowners to participate. This policy is intended to facilitate the conservation of species proposed on the list under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and candidate species, as well as species that become candidates in the near future or that may be nominated, by encouraging non-federal landowners such as individuals, states, local governments, tribes, businesses and organizations to implement conservation measures for declining species. by giving regulatory assurances concerning the country. Water or resource use restrictions that may otherwise apply if the species is subsequently classified as endangered or threatened under the ESA. Under the Directive, landowners who enter into a candidate conservation agreement with insurance (CCAA or agreement) will receive mutually agreed conservation measures for a nominated species or a candidate species or a species that may become a candidate in the near future or that is proposed for listing will receive assurances from the service, that additional conservation measures beyond those contained in the agreement are not necessary.
and no additional restrictions on the use of land, water or resources are imposed on them, the species should be added to the list in the future. When deciding whether or not to enter into a CCAA, the service will consider the extent to which the agreement reduces the main threats to the species covered in order to contribute to the conservation and stabilization of the species` populations or habitat and to provide significant net conservation benefits. Comment (18): One commenter was of the view that the inclusion of the term “cumulative benefit” in the definition of “net conservation benefit” creates ambiguity and suggests that the determination of net conservation benefits may depend on actions taken on other properties beyond the control of the participant. Therefore, the FWS should clarify this term in the definition. The commenter suggested that we change the definition as follows: “All qualitative and quantitative benefits arising from the implementation of specific conservation measures identified in the CCAA on the property or parcels to be registered.” The main authors of the policy are employees of the Ecological Services Program, Branch of Communications and Candidate Conservation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 5275 Leesburg Pike, MS: ES, Falls Church, VA 22041-3803. Conservation measures, such as those applicable to CCAAs, are measures that an owner voluntarily agrees to take when entering into a CCAA that can be achieved by addressing threats, that occur or may occur on their property result in an improvement in the populations of the species or an improvement or expansion of the habitat of the species with the potential to improve the population of the species […].