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desert tortoise, the conservation ac- tions gained through Section 10 sup- port the recovery of the species through acquisition and/or consolida- tion of habitats (in a manner consis- tent with the principles of conservation biology) that also serve to stabilize the species' decline. unintended disruption of natural sys- tems and a long-term loss of diversity. Coordination among Federal, State, and local agencies, academic researchers, conservation organiza- tions, private individuals, and major land users is perhaps the most essen- tial ingredient for the development and implementation of an effective recovery program. In its role as coor- dinator of the recovery process, the Service emphasizes cooperation and teamwork among all involved parties. Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act directs all Federal agencies to employ their authorities in furthering the purposes of the Act and to ensure that their actions do not jeopardize the continued existence of listed species or adversely modify their ent- ical habitat. This provision is particu- larly significant for Federal land- managing agencies, many of whom exercise direct control over the habi- tat of many listed and candidate species. Section 10 of the Endangered Species Act allows the Fish and Wildlife Service to grant permits for any tak- ing of listed species otherwise pro- hibited by section 9(a)(1)(B) if such taking is incidental to, and not the purpose of, the carrying out of an oth- erwise lawful activity. The Fish and Wildlife Service's ability to grant au- thorizations for incidental take of listed animals has been a useful tool for resolving private development conflicts with listed species. Often, as with the Stephens' kangaroo rat and While reclassifications and delistings demonstrate that there can be successes in recovery, removal from the list is not a reasonable goal for all endangered species. Primary recovery efforts generally aim at stabilizing or reversing deterioration of a species' habitat or decline in its numbers and then restoring it to a condition in which it is likely to survive over the long-term. A more realistic measure of the Service's recovery efforts than the number of species delisted is probably the proportion of listed species whose status has been stabi- lized, particularly among species that are habitat-limited and thus more vul- nerable to changes in their environ- ment. Maintenance of remaining populations of listed species and pre- vention of their extinction is a basic objective of the program. The goals of the Endangered Species Act are the conservation of unique life-forms and the natural systems upon which they depend. An evaluation of its effective- ness should be based, in large mea- sure, on the degree to which species and populations of organisms and the ecological relationships that connect and support them, collectively referred to as biodiversity, are being maintained or degraded. Much atten- tion has been focused in recent years on the need to better understand and protect the planet's biodiversity; en- dangered species, as non-regenerable elements of this system, are an essen- tial ingredient in any program directed at biodiversity conservation. Recovery Successes Some endangered species recovery successes have been well publicized, such as the comeback of the bald ea- gle and the peregrine falcon, the suc- cessful reintroduction of the red wolf into the Southeast, and the reclassifi- cation of the American alligator from 3 Left to Right: John F. Turner, Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Constance Harriman, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks; Jim Range, Chairman of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation; and George Archibald of the International Crane Foundation (ICF) examine a whooping crane at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Maryland, prior to its transfer to the ICF facility in Baraboo, Wisconsin.