http://www.commondreams.org/news2003/1017-09.htm
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 17, 2003
12:34 PM
CONTACT: Defenders
of Wildlife
Brad DeVries 202-772-0237
William Lutz 202-772-0369
http://www.defenders.org/
Bush
Endangered Species Import Plan Poses 'Serious Threat to More than
500 Species Worldwide, Says Defenders of Wildlife
WASHINGTON - October
17 - Defenders of Wildlife, the Species
Survival Network, and nearly two dozen other organizations today
called for a halt to White House plans to allow the importation
of hides, hunting trophies, and live specimens of endangered
animals. In official comment on the proposal, Defenders charged
that this approach could lead to the extinction of any of more
than 500 species around the world.
"This Bush policy
is truly Orwellian, encouraging killing
endangered animals in order to save them," said Carroll Muffett,
director of international programs for Defenders of Wildlife.
"Turning these species into commodities will only increase
the
slaughter and encourage illegal trade and poaching."
The USFWS proposal
allows imports of animal parts or live
specimens of endangered animals into the United States,
so long as the importer says that some portion of the purchase
price went into conservation efforts in the country of origin.
In theory, this would give an economic incentive to protection
of these species, but the proposal contains no provisions
that would allow the FWS to verify these claims.
Muffett said the proposal
is "shockingly silent on even
rudimentary standards" to ensure that any of the money
actually went to conservation, and noted that the proposal
would invite fraud and even liquidation of endangered animals
by developing nations desperate for hard currency.
"Sustainable use"
programs like the one proposed by the
Bush Administration have proven largely unsuccessful at
achieving real conservation, and frequently have the opposite
effect. Resumption of a legal ivory trade in southern Africa,
for example, appears to have led to increased elephant poaching
not only in the exporting states, but elsewhere in Africa and
Asia. In Kenya, this resurgence was accompanied by increased
slayings of Maasai peoples in encounters with heavily armed
poachers.
"Behind every
dubious example of 'sustainable use' - endangered
crocodile skins from Mexico, rare hunting trophies, elephants
for circuses - you'll find a well-heeled industry with an armada
of lobbyists," Muffett said. "Once again, the Bush Administration
is letting industry write its own rules."
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