Recovery Planning: The 3-Part Recovery Planning Framework

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) requires the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) to develop recovery plans for listed species unless we determine that a recovery plan would not promote the conservation of the species. Recovery plansdescribe the envisioned recovered state for a listed species and serve as central organizing, planning, and communication tools to guide recovery implementation efforts in collaboration with recovery partners. 

Recovery plans historically took a long time to develop and were not easily updated to reflect new information, changing needs, or environmental conditions. By improving and streamlining recovery planning, the Service can efficiently implement conservation efforts and adapt planning documents quickly when new information or circumstances arise that affect species recovery.

In 2016, the Service revised and streamlined its recovery planning approach, adopting the 3-part recovery planning framework (3-part framework). Under the 3-part framework, the Service produces three documents:

1. A Species Status Assessment (SSA), often created at the time of species listing, 
2. A Recovery plan and 
3. A Recovery Implementation Strategy (RIS). 

Only the recovery plan is required by the ESA. While the SSA and RIS are not required, they are important documents to streamline recovery plan development. 

The Species Status Assessment

The foundational biological and scientific information supporting recovery plans is housed within a Species Status Assessment (SSA). The SSA is an analysis of the best scientific and commercial data available regarding a species’ life history, biology, and current and future conditions that characterizes the species’ viability (i.e., ability to sustain population in the wild over time) and extinction risk. The SSA analysis is summarized in an SSA report (often referred to as an “SSA”) that is used to communicate the results of the analysis and tracks the stages of the SSA framework (species needs, current condition, and future condition). The SSA is structured around the conservation biology principles of the 3Rs – resiliency, representation and redundancy. The SSA report provides the foundation for development of the recovery plan and Recovery Implementation Strategy (RIS). SSAs are required to undergo peer and technical review to ensure they include the best available scientific information.

More on species status assessments

The Recovery Plan 

The recovery plan is a guidance document required by ESA section 4(f)(1) that describes the envisioned recovered state for a listed species (when it would no longer meet the definition of a threatened species or endangered species). Recovery plans do not make reclassification determinations for listed species but do provide a framework for practitioners to discern under which conditions a delisting determination may be appropriate. Recovery plans are guidance and not regulatory documents, and no agency or partner is required by the ESA to implement actions in a recovery plan. 

Under the 3-part framework, recovery plans are streamlined. They contain a concise overview of the envisioned recovered state for the species (described in terms of the 3Rs), and a recovery strategy, which describes the Service’s chosen approach to achieve recovery. The recovery plan is also statutorily required to contain: 

• Measurable and objective recovery criteria, 
• Site-specific recovery actions, and

Estimates of the time and costs to achieve recovery.

Recovery criteria are objective, measurable descriptions of the species’ conditions (in terms of the 3Rs) and threat abatement that indicate when the species may no longer meet the Act’s definitions of an endangered species or threatened species. Recovery actions are the site-specific management actions needed to achieve the recovery criteria. The estimates of time and cost represent the total time and total cost required to achieve recovery of the listed species. As required by the ESA, all draft recovery plans are made available for public notice and comment.  

Find draft and final recovery plans

The Recovery Implementation Strategy (RIS)

The Recovery Implementation Strategy (RIS) is an easily updateable operational plan that details the recovery activities needed to complete the recovery actions contained in the recovery plan. Specifically, the recovery activities provide the on-the-ground implementation information about who, what, when and how recovery efforts will be implemented by the Service and our recovery partners to complete the recovery actions contained in the recovery plan. Including the implementation activities in this separate “stepped-down” document, allows us to adapt to changing circumstances and update the RIS to adapt to species’ recovery needs in real time. Every recovery activity in the RIS must relate to a recovery action in the recovery plan. Because recovery activities are often implemented by the Service’s recovery partners, the RIS is often developed collaboratively with our recovery partners, to ensure alignment on the scope of the recovery activity and its implementation timeline.

The flexibility of the RIS does not prevent the need for the Service to periodically revise recovery plans when changes need to be made to recovery criteria, recovery actions, or any other plan elements. However, housing the recovery implementation activities in the RIS allows us to update them in real time, significantly reducing the number of recovery plan revisions, and improving our communication of recovery priorities to the public and our recovery partners.

Find Recovery Planning Documents

Recovery planning documents are available under each listed species’ profile in the Environmental Conservation Online System (ECOS).