"Fully Protected" is a legal protective designation administered by the California Department of Fish and Game

California Department of Fish and Game

The California Department of Fish and Game is a department within the government of California, falling under its parent California Natural Resources Agency. The Department of Fish and Game manages and protects the state's diverse fish, wildlife, plant resources, and native habitats...

 (CDFG), intended to conserve wildlife species that risk extinction

Extinction

In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...

 within the state of California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

.

The classification of Fully Protected (often abbreviated as CFP) was the State's initial effort in the 1960s to identify and provide additional protection to those animals that were rare or faced possible extinction. Lists were created for fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

, mammals, amphibians & reptiles, and birds.

The Fish and Game Code sections dealing with Fully Protected species state that these species "....may not be taken or possessed at any time and no provision of this code or any other law shall be construed to authorize the issuance of permits or licenses to take any
fully protected" species, although take may be authorized for necessary scientific research.
This language arguably makes the "Fully Protected" designation the strongest and most restrictive regarding the "take" of these species. In 2003 the code sections dealing with fully protected species were amended to allow CDFG to authorize take resulting from recovery activities for state-listed species.

California laws relating to fully protected species were among the first attempts in the nation to give protection to wildlife in risk of extinction, predating even the Federal Endangered Species Act

Endangered Species Act

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is one of the dozens of United States environmental laws passed in the 1970s. Signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973, it was designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and...

 (ESA). In the decades that followed, new laws were enacted that were more flexible to the needs of growing communities and the modern world. Thus, most fully protected species have also been given additional protection under more recent laws and regulations, and many have been listed under state and federal versions of the ESA. However, the laws relating to fully protected species are still in place, with the exception of the category Fully Protected Amphibians and Reptiles, which has been repealed. As mentioned above, California law states that no permit may be issued for take of fully protected species, under almost any circumstances. Thus, presence of a fully protected animal in an area such as a construction zone can literally bring the entire project to a halt. In contrast, the ESA carries stronger penalties, but has provisions built in for mitigation options in the event of unavoidable take. There is debate within conservation biology

Conservation biology

Conservation biology is the scientific study of the nature and status of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction...

circles as to the modern-day applicability of the fully protected designation due to its inflexibility, the fact that new conservation laws have been enacted, and the fact that some fully protected species have undergone moderate population recovery while many other species that deserve the fully protected status have not been designated as such.