[Senate Treaty Document 105-26]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



105th Congress                                              Treaty Doc.
                                SENATE

 1st Session                                                     105-26
_______________________________________________________________________


 
 PROTOCOL WITH MEXICO AMENDING CONVENTION FOR PROTECTION OF MIGRATORY 
                        BIRDS AND GAME MAMMALS

                               __________

                                MESSAGE

                                  from

                   THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

                              transmitting

THE PROTOCOL BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND 
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED MEXICAN STATES AMENDING THE CONVENTION FOR 
 THE PROTECTION OF MIGRATORY BIRDS AND GAME MAMMALS, SIGNED AT MEXICO 
                          CITY ON MAY 5, 1997





  September 15, 1997.--Protocol was read the first time and, together 
  with the accompanying papers, referred to the Committee on Foreign 
     Relations and ordered to be printed for the use of the Senate


                         LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

                              ----------                              

                               The White House, September 15, 1997.
To the Senate of the United States:
    With a view to receiving the advice and consent of the 
Senate to ratification, I transmit herewith the Protocol 
Between the Government of the United States of America and the 
Government of the United Mexican States Amending the Convention 
for the Protection of Migratory Birds and Game Mammals, signed 
at Mexico City on May 5, 1997 (``the Mexico Protocol''). I 
transmit also, for the information of the Senate, the report of 
the Department of State with respect to the Mexico Protocol.
    In concert with a similar Protocol between the Governments 
of the United States and Canada, the Mexico Protocol represents 
a considerable achievement for the United States in conserving 
migratory birds and balancing the interests of 
conservationists, sports hunters, and indigenous people. The 
Protocol should further enhance the management of and 
protection of this important resource for the benefit of all 
users.
    The Mexico Protocol is particularly important because it 
will permit the full implementation of the Protocol Amending 
the 1916 Convention for the Protection of Migratory Birds in 
Canada and the United States (``the Canada Protocol'') that is 
pending before the Senate at this time. The Canada Protocol is 
an important agreement that addresses the management of a 
spring/summer subsistence hunt of waterfowl in communities in 
Alaska and northern Canada. The Mexico Protocol conforms the 
Canadian and Mexican migratory bird conventions in a manner 
that will permit a legal and regulated spring/summer 
subsistence hunt in Canada and the United States.
    I recommend that the Senate give early and favorable 
consideration to the Protocol and give its advice and consent 
to ratification.

                                                William J. Clinton.


                          LETTER OF SUBMITTAL

                              ----------                              

                                       Washington, August 27, 1997.
The President,
The White House.
    The President: I have the honor to submit to you, with the 
view to its transmission to the Senate for advice and consent 
to ratification, the Protocol between the Government of the 
United States of America and the Government of the United 
Mexican States Amending the Convention for the Protection of 
Migratory Birds and Game Mammals, signed at Mexico City, May 5, 
1997 (``the Mexico Protocol'').
    The Convention for the Protection of Migratory Birds and 
Game Mammals, signed at Mexico City on February 7, 1936, (``the 
1936 Convention''), mandates ``a close season for wild ducks 
from the tenth of March to the first of September.''
    The goals of the Mexico Protocol are to bring the 1936 
Convention into conformity with practice, as indigenous people 
in Alaska have continued their traditional hunt of these birds 
in the spring and summer for subsistence and other related 
purposesdespite the prohibition in the 1936 Convention, and to 
permit full application of the Protocol between the Government of the 
United States of America and the Government of Canada Amending the 1916 
Convention Between the United Kingdom and the United States of America 
for the Protection of Migratory Birds in Canada and the United States, 
signed at Washington on December 14, 1995 (``the Canada Protocol''). 
Prompt ratification is of the essence to secure conservation efforts of 
the United States and Mexico.
    A detailed analysis of the Mexico Protocol follows.

                          the mexico protocol

    Article I of the Mexico Protocol amends Article II(D) of 
the 1936 Convention to permit, in the State of Alaska, the 
harvest of wild ducks and their eggs by indigenous inhabitants 
during the period from the tenth of March to the first of 
September for their own nutritional and other essential needs. 
This is necessary to provide domestic legal authority for this 
spring/summer hunt in Alaska, where the inhabitants are 
generally unable to participate in the customary autumn hunt, 
by which time in the year many of the game birds have departed 
from the state. In Alaska, the spring harvest of waterfowl and 
their eggs is a long-practiced custom of the indigenous 
population that providesimportant nutritional and cultural 
benefits to the indigenous populace.
    Article II of the Mexico Protocol establishes that the 
Protocol will enter into force on the date the United States 
and Mexico exchange instruments of ratification and that the 
Protocol, which will be considered an integral part of the 1936 
Convention, will continue in force for the duration of the 
Convention.

                        Domestic Implementation

    An existing statute (16 U.S.C. 712) authorizes the 
Department of the Interior to promulgate regulations to 
implement migratory bird treaties with a number of countries, 
including Mexico. No additional statutory authority is required 
to implement the Mexico Protocol.
    The term ``indigenous inhabitants'' in Article I of the 
Mexico Protocol refers primarily to Alaska Natives who are 
permanent residents of villages within designated areas of 
Alaska where subsistence hunting of migratory birds is 
customary and traditional. The term also includes non-Native 
permanent residents of these villages who have legitimate 
subsistence hunting needs. Subsistence harvest areas encompass 
the customary and traditional hunting areas of villages with a 
customary and traditional pattern of migratory bird harvest. 
These areas are to be designated through a 
deliberativeregulatory process, which would include the management 
bodies discussed below and employ the best available information on 
nutritional and cultural needs, customary and traditional use, and 
other pertinent factors.
    Once regulations are established, most village areas within 
the Alaska Peninsula, Kodiak Archipelago, the Aleutian Islands, 
and areas north and west of the Alaska Range would qualify as 
subsistence harvest areas. Areas that would generally not 
qualify for a spring or summer harvest include the Anchorage, 
Matanuska-Susitna and Fairbanks North Star boroughs, the Kenai 
Peninsula roaded area and southeast Alaska. The list of 
exceptions does not mean that individual communities within 
areas that are generally excluded cannot meet the test for 
designation as subsistence harvest areas. For example, data 
indicate that there is customary and traditional use of gull 
eggs by indigenous inhabitants in some villages in southeast 
Alaska; these villages could be included for this limited 
purpose even through indigenous inhabitants in southeast Alaska 
generally would be excluded from the spring/summer harvest.
    In recognition of their need to assist their immediate 
families in meeting their nutritional and other essential 
needs, or for the traditional teachingof cultural knowledge, 
residents of excluded areas in Alaska may be invited to participate in 
the customary spring and summer migratory bird harvest within the 
designated subsistence harvest areas around the villages in which their 
immediate families have membership. Such participation would require 
permission of the village council and an appropriate permit issued 
through the management body implementing the Protocol. ``Immediate 
family'' includes children, parents, grandparents, and siblings.
    Harvest levels of migratory birds in the United States may 
vary for all users, commensurate with the size of the migratory 
bird populations. Any restrictions in harvest levels of 
migratory birds necessary for conservation shall be shared 
equitably between users in Alaska and users in others states, 
taking into account nutritional needs. The Mexico Protocol is 
not intended to create a preference in favor of any group of 
users in the United States or to modify any preference that may 
exist.

           Consistency with other Migratory Bird Conventions

    The Mexico Protocol is needed in order for the United 
States to be able to implement the Canada Protocol. That 
Protocol, which similarly addresses the issue of the spring and 
summer hunt, is pending before the Senate. The spring/summer 
harvest provisions inthe Canada Protocol as they apply to wild 
ducks cannot be implemented by the United States until the 1936 U.S.-
Mexico Convention permits such a harvest of wild ducks. As a matter of 
U.S. domestic law, the Department of Interior may not implement a 
provision of one convention that allows a hunt prohibited by the 
provision of another, since U.S. courts have held that the statute 
implementing the various migratory bird conventions should be 
interpreted to require application of the most restrictive convention 
in the case of conflict. See Alaska Fish & Wildlife Fed'n & Outdoor 
Council, Inc. v. Dunkle, 829 F. 2d 933, 941 (9th Cir. 1987), cert. 
den., 485 U.S. 988 (1988).
     It will not be necessary to amend additional conventions 
in order to implement the Mexico Protocol or the Canada 
Protocol.
    This Protocol represents a major step forward in the 
conservation and management of migratory birds on a sustainable 
basis. Properly implemented, it will improve the health of the 
North American migratory bird population and protect the 
interests of conservationists, sports hunters, indigenous 
people and all others who value this important resource.
    Accordingly, I recommend that the Mexico Protocol be 
transmitted to the Senate for advice and consent to 
ratification.
    Respectfully submitted,
                                                Madeleine Albright.





                                
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