A Safe Harbor Agreement (SHA) is a voluntary agreement involving private or other non-federal property owners whose actions contribute to the recovery of species listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The agreement is between cooperating non-federal property owners and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is responsible for most listed marine and anadromous fish species.

In exchange for actions that contribute to the recovery of listed species on non- federal lands, participating property owners receive formal assurances from the FWS that if they fulfill the conditions of the SHA, the FWS will not require any additional or different management activities by the participants without their consent. In addition, at the end of the agreement period, participants may return the enrolled property to the baseline conditions that existed at the beginning of the SHA.

See website for more details on how SHA's help species recovery, how a property owner benefits from having an SHA, what the process of getting an SHA is and how long it takes, what happens when the agreement expires, and how transfering the permit to a new property owner can go.