The bill HR 5096 which may be cited as the `Flagship Species Conservation Act of 2004', in my opinion is a mixed bag from a conservation point of view. Currently the individual species acts are getting 5 million each per year for a smaller group of species like the Asian and African Elephant Conservation Acts. The Flagship Species Conservation Act of 2004 seems to propose that all fauna grant applicants will all be fighting for a piece of $10 million excluding those species all ready with conservation acts. It seems to me that the funding for conservation through HR 5096 could actually be being reducing funding for endangered species, as every species conservation group would be fighting for funding from one pie. The individual species acts as they come up for renewal could be swept into the same pie (the Flagship Species Conservation Act). I am not sure that adding flora to the Flagship Species Conservation Act would be that good of an idea. Do we really want to fight for a piece of a pie that would already be small slices for fauna conservation grant applicants? My first preference would be to see an Orchid Conservation Act funded at 5 million, (this will be another posting). Second would be a Flora Flagship Species Conservation Act. The flip side of all this is that a flora and fauna Flagship Species Conservation Act may be as good as it gets if the environmental politics remain similar to the current House of Representative's and White House Administration's for a number of years. I am very skeptical about the motivations of the current Resource Committee. They have been anything but helpful in protecting endangered species and the Endangered Species Act. This I documented in my last posting on the Flagship Species Conservation Act. Incidentally, to all OGD reader outside the US most of the grant money in these conservation acts go to projects outside the US. Mark Sullivan
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