Foreign Species | Overview

Mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei).

Photo credit: Richard Ruggiero/USFWS

The Branch of Foreign Species (BFS), like the domestic listing side of the Endangered Species Program, determines the status of foreign species and whether they should be added to the Federal list of threatened and endangered wildlife and plants and receive protections provided by the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended. The BFS also assesses foreign species already listed as threatened or endangered to determine whether they should be reclassified from threatened to endangered, reclassified from endangered to threatened, or removed from the list (delisted).

Why List Foreign Species?
The Endangered Species Act (ESA) requires the Service to list species as endangered or threatened regardless of which country the species lives in. Benefits to the species include prohibitions on certain activities including import, export, take, commercial activity, interstate commerce, and foreign commerce. By regulating activities, the United States ensures that people under the jurisdiction of the United States do not contribute to the further decline of listed species. Although the ESA's prohibitions regarding listed species apply only to people subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S., the ESA can generate conservation benefits such as increased awareness of listed species, research efforts to address conservation needs, or funding for in-situ conservation of the species in its range countries. The ESA also provides for limited financial assistance to develop and manage programs to conserve listed species in foreign countries, encourages conservation programs for such species, and allows for assistance for programs, such as personnel and training.

Species Highlight

In the News

Suleiman Markhor.

Peter Hopper/Creative Commons

The Suleiman Markhor of The Torghar Hills
The markhor is a species of wild goat that lives in extremely rugged terrain with precipitous cliffs, rocky caves, and bare rock surfaces interspersed with patches of arid, steppe vegetation. Historically, the straight-horned (or Suleiman) markhor inhabited the mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan, just inside the Afghanistan border. Today, the markhor is only found in the mountains of Balochistan Province, Pakistan. Here, locals have implemented a wildlife management plan called the Torghar Conservation Project, an innovative, community-based conservation program that allows for limited trophy hunting to conserve local populations of markhor, improve habitat for both markhor and domestic livestock, and improve the economic conditions for local tribes in Torghar...

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black-capped vireo. Alan Schmierer/Creative Commons

Young Poecilotheria subfusca female.

Wikimedia Commons

Service Proposes Endangered Species Act Protection for Five Tarantula Species
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced a proposal to list five tarantula species native to Sri Lanka as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. These species include Poecilotheria fasciata, P. ornata, P. smithi, P. subfusca, and P. vittata. The agency found these species are in danger of extinction due to the cumulative effects of habitat loss, intentional killing, pesticide use, capture for the pet trade, and climate change.[12/14/2016]
Federal Register Notice

South American Macaw Proposed for Protection Under Endangered Species Act [11/28/2016]

Service Releases 2016 List of Candidate Foreign Species Under Endangered Species Act [10/17/2016]

Service Revises Proposal to List the Scarlet Macaw under the Endangered Species Act, Reopens Comment Period [4/6/2016]

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