Abt Associates wins $17.5M contract to analyze economic impact of Endangered Species Act

Abt Associates has won a $17.5 million blanket purchase agreement to provide economic analysis support and technical services to the Division of Economics of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Abt’s work will help the agency’s implementation and administering of the Endangered Species Act, and will entail economic analysis of habitat designation. The contract will also call for rulemaking support, natural resource damage assessments, policy analysis, and economic analysis of projects, the company said in a release.

“The Endangered Species Act requires FWS to perform an economic analysis of habitats designated as ‘critical’ to preserve threatened or endangered species, so we will be supporting FWS in determining the economic impacts and benefits of critical habitat designation, including preventing extinction of the species,” said Dr. Elena Besedin, Abt principal associate and director of the project.