Recovery Target

A recovery target is the quantitative population or habitat threshold a listed species must reach for downlisting or delisting, set as the measurable recovery criteria in an Endangered Species Act recovery plan. Targets are expressed as abundance, number of viable populations, demographic rates, or occupied range, and tie to a viability standard that the species is no longer in danger of extinction or likely to become so. The eastern North Pacific gray whale met its target near pre-whaling abundance, about 21,000 animals, and was delisted in 1994. Progress against targets is checked in five-year status reviews.