*EPF113 10/04/2004
United States Acts as Guardian of World's Endangered Species
(Endangered species meeting addresses life forms within, outside North America) (710)

By M. Charlene Porter
Washington File Staff

Washington -- Plants and animals from many parts of the world are the focus of talks at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The U.S. delegation attends with a protection agenda that includes species both native to North America and to other regions of the globe.

CITES is widely viewed as one of the world's most successful and effective environmental treaties because of the cooperation and commitment that nations have demonstrated in acting to protect species recognized to be at risk. The treaty applies to species threatened by commerce and commits its parties to regulating trade in listed species through a system of permits and quotas.

"CITES relies upon individual nations taking action within their own jurisdictions to permit, to examine certificates of import-export; that's how trade is regulated," said Craig Manson, assistant secretary of the interior and the head of the U.S. delegation at the October 2-14 meeting in Bangkok, Thailand. "We have seen dramatic effects of regulating trade in species that are threatened or endangered and it's been done in a largely cooperative effort through CITES."

Business interests and environmental interests are frequently thought to be separated by a broad ideological chasm, but, in the case of CITES, trade and commerce provide the context for environmental protections.

"The CITES conferences are major environmental events because they produce enforceable decisions and practical actions for conserving wild nature and the Earth's biological diversity," said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the U.N. Environment Programme, which administers the CITES Secretariat.

This year, two important U.S. priorities ensure greater protections for two foreign sea creatures -- the great white shark and the humphead wrasse, a coral reef fish. The United States will support a proposal entered by Australia and Madagascar seeking greater regulation of trade of these slow-growing, warm water sharks. The animals' teeth, fins and jaws are profitable for legal and illegal harvesting.

The United States has introduced the proposal to protect the humphead wrasse, now vulnerable to overfishing, Manson said, at the same time that dredging, mining, sewage and sedimentation threaten its fragile environment.

The United States also has introduced proposals to add five more species of Asian turtles to the CITES protected list. The at-risk status of turtles and tortoises is already widely recognized. Various body parts of these creatures may be used as food or in traditional Asian medicines; pet markets create an additional demand. Recognition of their declining numbers has already led to the inclusion of 26 species native to South, Southeast and East Asia on the CITES protected list.

The United States is taking complementary actions on the domestic front. In July, President Bush signed into law the Marine Turtle Conservation Act, which earmarks up to $5 million a year for U.S. conservationists to use in supporting foreign governments' programs to protect the endangered sea turtles.

"Turtles depend on the oceans and nesting beaches of many nations to survive," said Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as the new law took effect earlier this year. "This act will reduce poaching, improve management and monitoring, and support local conservation efforts in areas of the world where needs are greatest."

The United States also is making greater investments in the protection of threatened life forms at home. In late September, Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced more than $70 million in grants to U.S. states to help support conservation and habitat preservation efforts. The various projects across 28 states will protect species as diverse as beetles, squirrels and bighorn sheep.

The actions are taken under the authority of the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973, an important legal law intended to conserve plant and animal species. Currently, more than 1,800 species, domestic and international, are listed as endangered or threatened species. The law requires U.S. government agencies to undertake programs for the conservation of endangered and threatened species and prohibits them from authorizing, funding, or carrying out any action that would jeopardize a listed species or destroy or modify its "critical habitat."

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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