Protecting Wildlife, Habitat and Florida’s Manatees
Biodiversity
Jan Schneider recognizes that there is a biological diversity crisis. Planet Earth and the United States are suffering staggering losses of plant and animal species. Land use by humans is the main driving force of loss of biodiversity, but climate change is playing an increasingly important part.
The Endangered Species Act
In this country, the 1973 Endangered Species Act is the primary tool for mitigating this crisis. Unfortunately, however, the ESA continues to be a top target for anti-environmental members of Congress and special interest lobbyists. Led almost entirely by Republicans in the House of Representatives, the most recent appropriations bills contain the largest number of anti-wildlife riders ever. A recent report by the Center for Biodiversity, Paving the Road to Extinction (2024), found that these bills contained at least 27 separate poison-pill riders on endangered species, 26 of them introduced by Republicans.
A Global Responsibility
There is a 1992 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. Only four UN member states have failed to become parties – including, most notably, the United States, which signed but never ratified the Convention.
Protecting Manatees
Protection of manatees or “sea cows” is sacred to our congressional district. Manatees were among the first species to be classified as “endangered” under the ESA, but they were prematurely downgraded to “threatened” status in 2017. There are now, however over 1,300 species listed as either endangered or threatened in the United States under the ESA.
What Jan Will Fight For
Jan will fight to protect biodiversity. Opponent Vern Buchanan (R-FL16) has sponsored some animal protection bills with which Jan agrees, but last year he was rated 3% by the League of Conservation Voters.
