And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 22:27:46 EST
Groups pressure Canada to protect species
Thursday, March 25, 1999
Species, such as the grizzly bear, migrate between Canada and the United
States. Canada is not doing enough to protect endangered species,
conservation groups in the United States charged Tuesday.
Defenders of Wildlife and Northwest Ecosystem Alliance have petitioned
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt and U.S. Secretary of
Commerce William Daley to institute trade sanctions against Canada if
the country does not enact Endangered Species Act legislation.
The number of endangered species in Canada has grown by 20 percent since
1992 and the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada
has listed 285 species as being endangered or at-risk of extinction,
according to the groups.
Since many of these species, such as the grizzly bear, marbled murrelet,
bull trout and woodland caribou, migrate between the two nations,
conservationists believe trade sanctions are justified. If Canadian
protection is not ensured, conservationists believe that U.S. protection
efforts will be undermined.
Under the U.S. Pelly Amendment to the Fishermen's Protective Act of
1967, passed by Congress in 1971, the United States may impose targeted
trade sanctions on countries failing to comply with international
programs to protect endangered species.
Environmentalists claim that Canada is violating at least two
international agreements -- the Convention on Biological Diversity and
the Convention on Nature Protection and Wildlife Preservation in the
Western Hemisphere -- by failing to enact endangered species
legislation.
Other impacted species include the bald eagle, peregrine falcon, piping
plover, lynx, trumpeter swan, swift fox, right whale, whooping crane,
eastern cougar, woodland caribou, sea otter and gray wolf, according to
the groups.
"My experience has been that Canadians overwhelmingly want their
government to protect and defend endangered wildlife and ecosystems,"
said Brock Evans, director of the U.S. Endangered Species Coalition.
"Failure could render their natural landscapes a distant memory," said
Evans.
"We must begin to look at North America as both politically and
ecologically inter-connected," said Bill Snape, legal director for
Defenders of Wildlife. "Wildlife can't survive or recover inside
increasingly shrinking human boundaries. When Canada hurts its wildlife
and habitat, it is injuring the United States. We've asked for action
from the Canadian government many times and we now have no choice but to
take this legal action."
Canada Environment Minister Christine Stewart says she will introduce a
bill in the next few months, but she has not promised to make key
changes requested by environmentalists who considered the 1996 bill,
which died in Parliament without reaching a final vote, deficient.
A June 1995 Angus Reid Poll found that 94 percent of Canadians support
endangered species legislation and that endangered species should be
protected wherever they live according to 75 percent of Canadians.
Copyright 1999, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved
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