Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Revisions to the Regulations for Candidate Conservation Agreements With Assurances

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), revise the regulations concerning enhancement-of-survival permits issued under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA), associated with Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances. We added the term "net conservation benefit" to the Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances regulations, and eliminated references to "other necessary properties" to clarify the level of conservation effort we require each agreement to include in order for us to approve a Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances. We also made these changes to the Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances policy in a separate document published in today's Federal Register.