The Center for Biological Diversity will file a legal challenge to an Obama administration policy, finalized today, that severely limits when a species qualifies for protection under the Endangered Species Act – a change that ignores both broad legal precedent and congressional intent. Under the Act a species qualifies for protection when it is “in danger of extinction in all or a significant of portion of its range.”

Both Congress and the courts have explained that the “significant portion of range” provision is vital for important conservation because it allows federal wildlife agencies to protect species before they are at risk of going extinct globally. But the newly finalized policy sharply restricts the use of this part of the Act, defining “significant” to mean that only when the loss of a part of a species’ range threatens the survival of the whole species would wildlife agencies protect that species under the Act.