[House Hearing, 115 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
HEARING ON ADVANCING EFFECTIVE
CONSERVATION POLICY WORLDWIDE:
SUCCESSES, CHALLENGES, AND NEXT STEPS
AND MARKUP ON H.R. 4819, DELTA ACT
=======================================================================
HEARING AND MARKUP
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
MAY 22, 2018
__________
Serial No. 115-135
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/, http://docs.house.gov,
or http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
30-172PDF WASHINGTON : 2018
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida BRAD SHERMAN, California
DANA ROHRABACHER, California GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
JOE WILSON, South Carolina GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida
TED POE, Texas KAREN BASS, California
DARRELL E. ISSA, California WILLIAM R. KEATING, Massachusetts
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania DAVID N. CICILLINE, Rhode Island
MO BROOKS, Alabama AMI BERA, California
PAUL COOK, California LOIS FRANKEL, Florida
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii
RON DeSANTIS, Florida JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois
TED S. YOHO, Florida BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania
ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois DINA TITUS, Nevada
LEE M. ZELDIN, New York NORMA J. TORRES, California
DANIEL M. DONOVAN, Jr., New York BRADLEY SCOTT SCHNEIDER, Illinois
F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, Jr., THOMAS R. SUOZZI, New York
Wisconsin ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York
ANN WAGNER, Missouri TED LIEU, California
BRIAN J. MAST, Florida
FRANCIS ROONEY, Florida
BRIAN K. FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania
THOMAS A. GARRETT, Jr., Virginia
JOHN R. CURTIS, Utah
Amy Porter, Chief of Staff Thomas Sheehy, Staff Director
Jason Steinbaum, Democratic Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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Page
HEARING WITNESSES
Ms. Gretchen S. Peters, executive director, Center on Illicit
Networks and Transnational Organized Crime..................... 4
Mr. Dave Stewart, executive vice president and general counsel,
Vulcan......................................................... 14
Elizabeth L. Bennett, Ph.D., vice president for species
conservation, Wildlife Conservation Society.................... 21
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING RECORD
Ms. Gretchen S. Peters: Prepared statement....................... 7
Mr. Dave Stewart: Prepared statement............................. 16
Elizabeth L. Bennett, Ph.D.: Prepared statement.................. 23
MARKUP ON
H.R. 4819, To promote inclusive economic growth through
conservation and biodiversity programs that facilitate
transboundary cooperation, improve natural resource management,
and build local capacity to protect and preserve threatened
wildlife species in the greater Okavango River Basin of
southern Africa................................................ 50
Amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 4819 followed
by the Honorable Edward R. Royce, a Representative in
Congress from the State of California, and chairman,
Committee on Foreign Affairs................................. 58
APPENDIX
Hearing/markup notice............................................ 70
Hearing and markup minutes....................................... 71
Markup summary................................................... 75
HEARING ON ADVANCING EFFECTIVE
CONSERVATION POLICY WORLDWIDE:
SUCCESSES, CHALLENGES, AND NEXT STEPS
AND MARKUP ON H.R. 4819, DELTA ACT
----------
TUESDAY, MAY 22, 2018
House of Representatives,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 o'clock a.m.,
in room 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Edward Royce
(chairman of the committee) presiding.
Mr. Royce. This hearing will come to order. One of the
great things about America is that we strive to be better. We
work hard and we innovate to create better opportunities. We
recognize the responsibility to leave future generations better
off. It is this mindset that birthed the modern conservation
movement, a movement that Teddy Roosevelt aptly deemed
democratic in spirit, purpose, and method.
Indeed, even before the Founding Fathers, Americans had
long believed that this country's abundant resources should not
be available just to the well off, but to everyone. Of course,
as Roosevelt and other leaders in the late 19th century
realized, America's resources were not limitless. Smart
development and conservation would be necessary to protect our
natural resources. Yellowstone, the world's first national
park, soon followed.
Today we know that these aren't just U.S. issues, they are
global issues. By helping others conserve their natural
heritage we ensure a brighter future for our own children. So
many of those children are captivated by elephants and rhinos
and cheetahs and many other majestic species, but it also is
helping to improve the lives of millions, the lives of children
in Africa who call places like the Okavango River basin their
home.
As a member of this committee, I have long worked to use
this platform to make a difference in this fight. I remember
when we were drafting the Congo Basin Forest Partnership
legislation back in 2002. That followed a trip then-Secretary
Colin Powell had made to that awe-inspiring landscape. We
launched the International Conservation Caucus in the House as
a means to build support for the effort. Back then the interest
was limited. Only a handful of my colleagues appreciated the
link between good natural resource management, sound economic
growth, and national security. Today the ICC is one of the
largest bipartisan caucuses on Capitol Hill. The ICC was
critical to enacting the End Wildlife Trafficking Act in 2016
to help combat unprecedented levels of wildlife poaching and
trafficking. Indeed, estimated at $10 billion a year, wildlife
trafficking is one of the largest black markets in the world,
benefiting terrorist groups like the Lord's Resistance Army and
Al-Shabaab. To help bolster our national security, the End
Wildlife Trafficking Act rightfully put trafficking of
threatened species on par with weapons and drug trafficking as
threats, and it has helped to empower law enforcement and park
rangers on the front lines.
Last fall, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service successfully
completed Operation Jungle Book. Now that was in Southern
California. It was the biggest wildlife trafficking bust in the
state of California's history. As the U.S. has pushed forward
others have followed. Beijing is to be commended. China is to
be thanked for taking steps to follow through on its domestic
ivory market ban announced in 2017. Few predicted such
progress. Similar bans are pending in Hong Kong and in
Singapore, and the U.K. recently announced its strictest ivory
ban to date.
But many challenges remain. Later, we will be marking up
legislation that will help Southern Africa's critical Okavango
River basin. This magnificent but fragile inland delta supports
more than 1 million people and it has the largest remaining
population of wild elephants in the world. Alarmingly, unwise
development and wildlife poaching are threatening to destroy
the communities that rely on responsible management of this
watershed. Like we did with the Congo Basin Forest Partnership,
our goal is to strengthen coordination among the key players in
the region.
Wildlife and water don't know borders. For conservation to
be impactful we need governments, we need the NGOs, and we need
the private sector all working together. Our world's well-being
depends on this and it depends on many more such efforts. So
with that I will turn to Mr. Eliot Engel, the ranking member of
this committee.
Mr. Engel. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for calling this
important hearing. And let me say that here in Congress we
didn't hear a lot about wildlife trafficking and the way it
intersects with our national security concerns before you, Mr.
Chairman, put this issue on our radar screen. You have
demonstrated extraordinary leadership on conservation and
wildlife issues for many, many years. And let me just say the
impact of your efforts will be felt well into the future both
here in Congress and around the world.
To our witnesses, welcome to the Foreign Affairs Committee.
In particular, I would like to thank Dr. Bennett from the
Wildlife Conservation Society, in my backyard, for being here
today. WCS is based at the Bronx Zoo right next to the
congressional district I represent. It used to be in my
congressional district, but reapportionment took it out but not
because I wanted it to be taken out. But I have really enjoyed
working with many of your colleagues over the years. It is just
extraordinary work that you do and your organization does. And
particularly, I want to single out John Calvelli who used to be
my staff director here for many years in Washington.
We focused a great deal on the challenge of wildlife
trafficking in recent years, but poaching is still hovering at
crisis levels. The number of Asian elephants has declined by
roughly a third over the last 10 years. Rhino populations have
been decimated with only about 30,000 left in the wild. The
most trafficked mammal in the world, the pangolin, is seriously
endangered, and the list goes on and on. And this is just
wrong. I don't want the next generation to grow up only knowing
about elephants from the history books. We cannot allow these
wonderful animals to disappear forever.
But one of the main reasons we talk about this issue here
in the Foreign Affairs Committee is that we have a national
security interest in putting a stop to wildlife trafficking.
Just like trafficking in drugs, weapons, and people, wildlife
trafficking feeds corruption, undermines the rules of law,
threatens economic prosperity, and drives instability. Thanks
to Chairman Royce, the End Wildlife Trafficking Act became law
in 2016, and today the administration is coming up with a
strategy to ramp up cooperation with the 26 countries that are
major sources, transit points, or consumers of wildlife
trafficking, what we call focus countries.
We also need to pay more attention to the three countries
designated as countries of concern in which government
officials are complicit in the illegal wildlife trade. There
are a range of things we can do to tackle the problem of
wildlife trafficking. We can partner with other governments to
train park rangers and equip them with cutting edge
technologies to counter poachers, we can help identify and take
down the international criminal networks responsible for so
much of the illicit wildlife trade, and we can support efforts
to reduce the demand for wildlife products. I look forward to
hearing from our witnesses on their important work in these and
other areas.
One final point, when it comes to conservation the elephant
in the room, so to speak, is climate change. All our efforts to
protect habitats and species will mean nothing if we don't
protect the environment upon which all these animals and all of
us depend. Literally, every country in the world except the
United States is now party to the Paris Climate Accord aimed at
curbing climate change. We cannot speak credibly on the issue
of wildlife trafficking if we continue to isolate ourselves
from the rest of the world when it comes to climate change.
So again I thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank you for your
work through the years on this important issue, and I yield
back.
Mr. Royce. Thank you, Mr. Engel.
This morning I am pleased to welcome our panel of
distinguished guests to the committee. We have Ms. Gretchen
Peters. She is the director of the Center on Illicit Networks
and Transnational Organized Crime. We have Mr. David Stewart,
executive vice president and general counsel for Vulcan. Vulcan
is a philanthropic foundation that develops new technology to
combat poaching and sustainably manage national parks. And we
have Dr. Elizabeth Bennett, vice president for Species
Conservation at the Wildlife Conservation Society. And we
appreciate them making the trek to be with us here today, and,
without objection, the witnesses' full prepared statement will
be made part of the record. The members are going to have 5
calendar days to submit any statements or questions or any
extraneous materials for the record.
So if you would, Ms. Peters, we will start with you if you
want to summarize your remarks for 5 minutes. And after the
three of you are done we will go to questions.
STATEMENT OF MS. GRETCHEN S. PETERS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CENTER
ON ILLICIT NETWORKS AND TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME
Ms. Peters. Thank you, Chairman Royce, Ranking Member
Engel, and distinguished committee members for inviting me here
today. It is a great honor to have an opportunity to comment on
U.S. policy toward the global illegal wildlife trade. I run
CINTOC, a strategic intelligence organization that supports
governments and foundations to find and disrupt hidden criminal
networks. Not just wildlife networks, but all types of crimes.
If you remember just one thing that I say today, please
remember this. There are just a handful of powerful crime
syndicates that traffic the majority of illegal wildlife
products moving from Africa to Asia and we know who they are.
These networks can and should be the target of our national
security and law enforcement apparatus not just because they
are wiping out iconic species like the elephant, the rhino, and
the pangolin, but for all the dangerous activities that they
engage in from smuggling people, drugs, weapons, selling
uranium to Iran, deforestation, and illegal mining. This is an
organized crime threat and a national security threat and we
must begin to treat it as such.
On the positive side, we don't need any new laws to target
these networks, as Chairman Royce went through some of the
recent legislation that has been passed that is terrific.
Existing legislation on transnational organized crime is well
equipped to take them down and I applaud Congress and both the
Obama and Trump administration for sharpening our laws on
wildlife crime in particular.
I have three points to make today. One, focus on the
networks. What we do need is a properly resourced,
multinational, multiagency task force focused on these key
networks operating between Africa and Asia. To a large extent,
the U.S. Government continues to treat wildlife crime as a
conservation problem, managing and resourcing programs to
reduce wildlife crime separately from other anti-crime
activities. This stovepiping stifles interagency collaboration,
it causes inefficiencies that ultimately hinder the
effectiveness of law enforcement efforts, and it also causes
missed opportunities to target the transnational organized
crime networks for the myriad crimes they commit.
We have witnessed this convergence around the globe. In
parts of Africa, wildlife crime funds terrorists, insurgents,
violent bandits, and rogue states like North Korea. From Mexico
narcos smuggling fish bladders to Iranian back networks moving
uranium and ivory, crime networks that traditionally smuggled
only drugs, guns, and people have diversified into smuggling
wildlife and timber because it represents high profit, low risk
alternative.
Now I am not saying that wildlife crime converges with
other serious crime at every step of the illegal wildlife
supply chain and I am not suggesting that we need to send SEAL
Team 6 into the Okavango Delta to protect animals. That would
be ridiculous. What I am saying is that we need our security
apparatus focused on the powerful transnational crime
syndicates that are moving illicit goods transnationally. These
are also the crime syndicates that are financing poaching.
We have had some real law enforcement success stories here
in the United States including Operation Crash and Operation
Jungle Book. I also supported a DEA operation to extract four
smugglers from Kenya on narcotics charges last year. Two of
those smugglers were also part of the largest ivory trafficking
ring on the Swahili coast. However, what I have observed also
is that governments in Asia, Latin America, and Africa have
neither the political will nor the investigative,
prosecutorial, nor legislative capacity to take on the most
powerful crime networks that are moving wildlife and other
illicit goods.
The U.S. can and should take action against major crime
syndicates, using U.S. extraterritorial legislation while also
expanding technical and financial assistance to range and
transit states to strengthen their own criminal justice
responses to wildlife crime. I urge the U.S. Congress to
resource a transnational effort to investigate, analyze, and
interdict the most powerful crime networks operating between
sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Let's not just focus on wildlife
crime. Let's get them for all of their illegal activities.
Two, we need to build constituencies. The U.S. Government
needs to engage trusted partners in the NGO and conservation
community, some of whom are sitting on, literally, terabytes of
data about wildlife trafficking networks that intersect with
U.S. international and regional security interests. This
engagement should be handled privately and quietly. Many
organizations fighting wildlife crime and human trafficking in
Asia, Africa, and Latin America are doing so at great personal
risk to themselves.
We also need to be sharing analysis about these convergence
patterns with foreign security officials in Asia in order to
spur their cooperation. Authorities in China, Malaysia,
Vietnam, and other consumer nations are not concerned about the
wildlife trade, but they will likely take a greater interest if
they realize its close connection to the illicit drug trade
which does worry them. Three, we need to break the systems
supporting wildlife crime. It is too easy for criminals to hide
in the cracks in the global financial, transport, and
communication system.
We at CINTOC have been focused this year on the social
media industry. There is an astonishing amount of wildlife
being traded on U.S. publicly listed social media firms
including Facebook and WeChat. Having analyzed thousands of
posts for illegal ivory on social media, CINTOC has concluded
the social media industry is a primary enabler connecting
illegal wildlife traders to customers in a marketplace that is
global, anonymous, and at this point, completely free of
regulation.
These firms are literally facilitating the elephants'
extinction. The National Whistleblower Center has filed
complaints to the Securities and Exchange Commission about this
illegal activity, and if Congress wants action now it should
urge the SEC to utilize its regulatory power against these U.S.
publicly listed firms. I also urge Congress to enact
legislation along the lines of what banks face with regards to
money laundering. Social media firms should have to report
suspected criminal activity and collaborate with law
enforcement to take it off their platforms.
So three key points today: Focus on the networks, we know
who they are; two, resource a transnational law enforcement
effort and diplomatic effort to target these big networks; and
three, clean up the systems that facilitate wildlife crime that
we can impact right here in the United States. Thank you for
taking the time to hear what I have to say.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Peters follows:]
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Mr. Royce. Thank you, Ms. Peters. And we are involved with
Facebook in terms of the points you have raised in order to try
to get them engaged in the coalition to take decisive action on
this.
We go now to Mr. David Stewart, our next panelist here.
STATEMENT OF MR. DAVE STEWART, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND
GENERAL COUNSEL, VULCAN
Mr. Stewart. Chairman Royce, Ranking Member Engel, members
of the committee, I am honored to appear before you today to
discuss park management, wildlife trafficking, and poaching. I
also want to thank you for your leadership in conceiving and
passing the End Wildlife Trafficking Act during the last
Congress and continuing to further this important work with the
DELTA Act during this Congress. Vulcan is proud to support both
impactful pieces of legislation.
I will start my testimony today with a positive comment
about this terrible crime. Across administrations, across the
aisle, and across our Government, poaching and wildlife
trafficking are increasingly being recognized not only as an
environmental tragedy but as an urgent threat to U.S. national
security interests. This shift in thinking is essential to
tackling this challenge. The focus must now be on how we bring
government, business, and philanthropy together to harness our
combined power and resources to take on wildlife trafficking,
to dismantle these criminal networks that are driving it, and
to preserve our natural heritage while protecting global
security.
Today I would like to feature what Vulcan is doing to
support these efforts and I will start with a brief video clip,
hopefully.
[Video.]
As highlighted in the clip, the 2016 Great Elephant Census
provided urgently needed and previously unavailable data on the
size and distribution of savanna elephant populations across 18
range states in Africa, identifying where they and other
species had been most impacted by poaching and where
conservation efforts were working well. We unfortunately
discovered a population decline of 30 percent in those 7 years
which accelerated over that period.
Also featured in the clip is the Abu Concession, our
455,000-acre wildlife reserve in the Okavango Delta in
Botswana. There we operate two safari camps and our own anti-
poaching force, fund conservation related research including
development and operation of drones for integration into anti-
poaching operations, and work with local communities. My
written testimony goes into detail about our park management
approach, but in summary we focus on actively securing the park
against poaching, operating businesses such as safari camps
that provide tangible benefits to the local communities through
employment, through commitment of revenues to build local
infrastructure so that communities see wildlife as an asset
that will ultimately reward them, wildlife crime as a threat to
that asset and their well-being, and prevention of such crime
as their responsibility. Our on-the-ground park operations
along with broad engagement across Africa with the GEC
demonstrated to us the overwhelming amount of data that need to
be captured in order to effectively protect elephants and other
wildlife. Therefore, we developed a product called DAS, which
stands for Domain Awareness System.
DAS is a military style command and control communications
system for conservation. It integrates many different data
sources and enables park management in real time to visualize
wildlife, rangers and potential illegal activity that threatens
them, and to deploy the rangers and other resources to
interdict the illegal activity before they can harm the
wildlife. This enables park managers to make immediate
decisions to officially deploy resources for interdiction and
active wildlife management. DAS is currently deployed in 12
parks in eight countries in Africa, including three that have
been identified as ``focus countries'' by the U.S. State
Department. Among many other countries we plan to deploy DAS
next, six of them are U.S. ``focus countries.''
Moving beyond park operations, Vulcan is also providing
resources to organizations like the PAMS Foundation and the
National and Transnational Serious Crime Investigation Unit in
Tanzania, the Wildlife Crime Prevention Project and
Conservation South Luangwa in Zambia, and the Lilongwe Wildlife
Trust in Malawi. In particular, NTSCIU has in recent years been
instrumental in over 1,400 arrests and 360 prison sentences
issued for wildlife crimes.
In the years to come, Vulcan will have invested upwards of
$60 million in terrestrial and maritime technologies to counter
wildlife crime. We don't expect to recoup this investment, but
we also know we can't scale it alone. We are pursuing public-
private partnerships with relevant governments and
international organizations to bring our tested technologies to
scale.
Thank you for your tireless work on these issues, and thank
you for the opportunity to testify before you today and I look
forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Stewart follows:]
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Mr. Royce. Thank you, David.
Doctor?
STATEMENT OF ELIZABETH L. BENNETT, PH.D., VICE PRESIDENT FOR
SPECIES CONSERVATION, WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY
Ms. Bennett. Chairman Royce, Ranking Member Engel, and
members of the committee, thank you for providing this
opportunity to testify. Please accept my submitted testimony
for the record as I will summarize that today.
WCS is deeply concerned by the alarming rate of species
decline due to illegal hunting, trafficking, habitat loss, and
human-wildlife conflict. I will summarize what is working,
identify gaps, and recommend where the U.S. Government and
Congress in particular can assist. WCS was founded in 1895 with
the goal of saving wildlife and wild places. Today we work in
more than 60 countries and across the world's oceans. Our work
is grounded in high quality science and in strong long-term
partnerships with governments, local communities and indigenous
groups.
Poaching for the illegal wildlife trade is devastating many
species around the world. A hundred years ago, up to 100,000
tigers roamed Asia. By 2011 that was down to just about 3,000.
African forest elephants declined by 62 percent over 10 years
due to killing for their ivory. Many other species are affected
by high levels of poaching for the trade, for the medicine,
food, and pet trades such as pangolins, songbirds, parrots,
tortoises and turtles, sharks and rays. Many large charismatic
species threatened by trafficking play key ecological roles.
Their loss has many implications including loss of food
security for marginalized rural people and reduced resilience
to climate change.
The illegal trade is often driven by organized criminal
groups with links to other forms of organized crime and that
weakens rule of law and security for communities living
alongside wildlife. In recent years, the world is taking this
threat seriously. The U.N. General Assembly has passed three
resolutions on wildlife trafficking. The U.S. Government
expanded the executive order on transnational organized crime
to include wildlife trafficking. And thanks to the leadership
of Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Engel, wildlife crime
serve as predicate offenses to Federal money laundering
prosecutions.
Preventing poaching requires the establishment of protected
areas and managing them effectively. WCS with partners
developed the GPS-based software enforcement program, SMART,
which is now deployed in over 600 sites in 55 countries. In
addition to increasing patrol efficiency, this increases
transparency and helps reduce corruption. With long-term
programs and sufficient investment, poaching can be curtailed.
In Huai Kha Khaeng National Park, Thailand, in the past 10
years tiger numbers have increased by 50 percent. With the
critical support of USAID's CARPE program WCS in northern
Congo's Nouabale-Ndoki National Park trains rangers and
conducts SMART patrols. Forest elephant numbers there have
remained stable since 2006 even while they have plummeted
across much of Central Africa.
WCS works with governments and other law enforcement
partners to dismantle wildlife trafficking networks. With the
vital support of USAID, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and INL
we have achieved measurable success. In Indonesia, WCS's
Wildlife Crimes Unit gathers intelligence and assists law
enforcement. Since its formation in 2003, more than 1,000
prosecutors have been trained, 70 percent of the tiger criminal
networks in northern Sumatra have been dismantled, and more
than 600 suspects have been arrested with a sentencing rate of
over 90 percent. Support from INL is also helping us to act at
transcontinental levels. We are working along key trade routes
such as the one between Mozambique and Vietnam and China. Even
though we are having success, we are not bringing this up to
scale.
Urgently needed is continued U.S. Government funding. WCS
is deeply concerned about the administration's proposed cuts to
critical programs to combat wildlife trafficking in the fiscal
year 2019 budget. We thank the 74 Members of Congress and 26
senators who urged appropriators to fully restore cuts at a
time when so much more needs to be done. These include
restoring level funding for the USAID biodiversity program,
CARPE, and for that to commit to a fourth phase, the Combating
Wildlife Trafficking initiative implemented by INL and USAID
and the U.S. Contribution to the GEF.
Regarding the End Wildlife Trafficking Act, we urge this
committee to ensure full consultations with NGOs operating in
focus countries. And regarding the DELTA Act, we urge the
committee to fully integrate protected area management and land
use planning into the strategy. We appreciate that the U.S.
Government has successfully raised the profile of wildlife
trafficking as serious crime and provides tools and attaches
overseas to tackle it. But it is vital that the U.S. continues
to demonstrate its leadership on the global stage. We need
focused, coordinated action and leadership if the world's wild
species and vulnerable people living alongside them are to
thrive to future generations. Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Bennett follows:]
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Mr. Royce. Thank you. So as you indicated, Dr. Bennett, you
had a situation where the tiger numbers have increased by 50
percent in the park land there in Thailand as a result of these
patrols. And the real question is, what is the most effective
steps we can take under the End Wildlife Trafficking Act?
We had some comments from Ms. Peters about Operation Crash
and Operation Jungle Book. And I would ask you, Ms. Peters,
what have we learned from these operations and how can law
enforcement better utilize the authority that we have given
them here now that we have the working group? As you say, the
SEC should use its regulatory authority to push as well on
Facebook, give us your thoughts there. How can we better
coordinate this interagency process? How can we get these
convictions?
Ms. Peters. Chairman Royce, I think there have been some
real successes as I said in these U.S.-based operations and
both Operation Crash and Operation Jungle Book, which involves
cooperation between U.S. Fish and Wildlife and Homeland
Security and Customs, are examples of that. I think where there
is room for more interagency collaboration is in the
international sphere. Those were both operations here in the
United States.
The real critical threat to wildlife outside of the social
media issue, the real critical threat to wildlife is in other
parts of the world, the enormous amounts of ivory, pangolin
scales, rhino horn that have been trafficked from Africa, to
Asia in particular, and other products, environmentally
sensitive products, rare hardwoods, tropical fish, et cetera.
There has been a real increase that I have observed in Africa
in cooperation between the Drug Enforcement Administration and
Fish and Wildlife law enforcement.
The Drug Enforcement Administration is also collaborating
now for the first time in its history with conservation groups.
I was just on the phone with an agent in sub-Saharan Africa, I
won't say which country, yesterday, who was trying to get
information from me about wildlife trafficking networks in that
country. They are starting to recognize, or I should say that
organization very much recognizes that the networks that are
trafficking wildlife are also moving dangerous drugs and that
they can get better wins from collaborating with them. And so
this is an area where I think we can get more cooperation.
I also want to take a moment to thank you, Chairman Royce,
for your support during the operation. We supported in Kenya,
the ICCF was absolutely instrumental in helping us get those
four men extracted from Kenya. Not just your members here in
Congress pushing the administration to ask Kenya to have them
extradited, but also Dr. Amina Abdalla, the head of the ICCF in
Kenya, brought together a whole group of Kenyan congress
members and pushed the Kenyan Government as well. So that type
of legislative or congressional support is another area where I
think we can have real improvement.
And I think there could be real engagement in consumer
nations to help the Chinese and the Vietnamese, and the
Malaysians in particular, understand the links between, or the
convergence between narcotics, weapons trafficking, human
trafficking, and the wildlife trade. The same networks that
have the capacity to move a container of heroin through the
global transport system have the capacity to move a container
with ivory or pangolin scales, and it is following the same
routes.
We have mapped the supply chains that are moving heroin
from Afghanistan into Africa. In some cases the seizures have
the same bags from Pakistan with Pakistani Rice on them. It is
the same, the paths aren't exactly the same. The drugs are
coming out of Afghanistan into the Swahili coast, then it gets
repackaged. It goes back to Asia. The boats go back to Asia.
There is intersections with human trafficking particularly with
regard to the rhino horn trade in Mozambique and South Africa
going into Vietnam. So there is enormous amount of data to be
exploited.
Mr. Royce. That is why we have the task force. We just want
those tools that you have laid out. We want them to apply them
effectively in doing their job.
I have to ask you, Mr. Stewart, how do we best get the buy-
in from the people that call these areas home? How do we ensure
that they feel the benefits of conservation in the Okavango
River basin where, you know, obviously we are going to need
their involvement?
Mr. Stewart. Mr. Chairman, I think there are at least three
components to that--creation of incentive structures,
education, and storytelling. In our experience, local
communities will reliably and consistently participate in
conservation efforts only if they see tangible benefits from
preserving the wild animals and the natural resources therein.
We can do that through employment. Tourism provides a great
opportunity for that and that is something we have done.
So provide jobs for people who live in the local
communities, use revenues from those businesses to build up
infrastructure like basics--bore holes for water, building
schools, providing food for students at school, and again that
gives some buy-in. So that these wild animals are not just the
things that endanger their kids, knock down their fences, and
eat their crops, but they are actually an asset they see they
have an interest in and see the benefit from that. That, I
think, helps build the political will for them to want to take
wildlife crime seriously and support those efforts as well as
provide intelligence to the efforts. On education, it is
unfortunate that many people that live right along the border
of parks are completely disengaged from what goes within and
from seeing the animals that live therein and the benefits that
come from that. So, it is important to engage community members
at a young age, programs and initiative that involve school
children, conservation clubs at school that are funded by
conservation or teach about conservation.
And finally storytelling. Our Vulcan Productions unit has
done a number of documentaries and television series that
explore conservation and wildlife issues related to wildlife
trafficking, but it is important to show those not only here in
the West but in the elephant range states and places where
these other wildlife live. So we brought our documentary, The
Ivory Game, to communities in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, and
Malawi are working with local schools and nonprofit
organizations to showcase the story of what is happening to the
animals that live in those countries, and working closely with
the U.S. Embassies to use these films for community screenings
where poaching and wildlife crimes are frequent reality.
Mr. Royce. Thanks, Mr. Stewart.
We go now to Mr. Engel.
Mr. Engel. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think obviously we
should do everything possible through technology, law
enforcement, and other means to prevent poachers from
slaughtering threatened species, but as long as there is demand
for ivory, rhino horn, and other wildlife products there are
obviously going to be people willing to take the risk to supply
that demand and we obviously won't be able to stop all of them.
So it seems to me that we also need to focus on reducing
demand, so let me ask you, Dr. Bennett, since you really have,
I am aware of the Wildlife Conservation Society and the good
work you do. Tell us what we can do to better convince
consumers mainly in Asian countries to stop buying these
products. And I know we have seen advertisements from time to
time with celebrities and horrific pictures of dead elephants.
Have those advertisements and pictures made a difference and
what other approaches might be effective that we are not doing
that we should do?
Ms. Bennett. Thank you very much, Ranking Member Engel, for
that. It is an extremely good question because, at the end of
the day, while there is still the demand, as you say, there
will still be the poaching. One thing that can be done is just
straight change the law which China has done for ivory. There
was a National Geographic survey done a few years ago now which
asked members of the public in China what would cause them to
stop buying ivory, and the single greatest answer was if it is
made illegal and that has now been done. It has been made
illegal, which is great, and now there is the task of enforcing
it and taking it off the market.
That doesn't actually necessarily reduce people wanting to
buy it and buying it through the black market and one of the
real concerns is that people from China and Vietnam will
actually go to other countries with weaker laws and weaker law
enforcement on their borders, so go and take a holiday in Laos
or Cambodia and bring back some wildlife products. It is a very
hard one to answer.
We know a lot about the science of stopping poaching and a
lot about how to stop trafficking. There is no one clear answer
to how to change people's behavior. And a lot of people have
tried different things, but it is not very clear what changes
people's behavior. So, for example, within China for shark fin
there have been a lot of campaigns including using celebrities
about buying shark's fin, which have probably had quite an
effect in building up a groundswell, but the single thing that
took shark's fin off the market was President Xi Jinping saying
this is a sign of sort of corruption and affluence and luxury,
and stopped government officers buying shark's fin.
So it is really hard to know. And legal bans themselves
don't necessarily change demand. In fact, for some things such
as pangolin, people buy it because it is illegal and that gives
an additional status because it shows that you are above the
law. So it is a very complex question. We don't actually know
the answer.
There is a project going on at the Oxford Martin School in
the U.K. for 3 years at the moment to examine exactly that
question, what do we know and what works and therefore how can
we change our programs in future.
Mr. Engel. Thank you very much.
Ms. Peters, let me ask you this. You note that Facebook has
become a major platform for selling illegal wildlife products.
Tell me how you think they are acting. Do you think Facebook is
taking this problem seriously? Have you seen any improvements
in their practices? Does the same problem exist on other Web
sites or other social media platforms?
Ms. Peters. Yes, the problem exists on a number of social
media platforms. Facebook in particular has been made aware of
this problem multiple times over the past few years. The
Wildlife Justice Committee held a 2-day seminar in The Hague in
2015 and I don't believe Facebook even sent anybody. So a 2-day
seminar was held about the problem, a number of reports have
been published by WWF, by IFAW, and other organizations
detailing the problem, and Facebook and a number of other tech
firms have joined a coalition promising to remove wildlife from
their platforms by 2020. Our investigators were online looking
at the issue just last week and it was business as normal.
I think that the days for talking to the leaders of social
media firms are over. They have been told multiple times by
multiple organizations including U.S. Fish and Wildlife law
enforcement that this problem exists and they have done nothing
about it.
Mr. Engel. You know, Ms. Peters, we had Mr. Zuckerberg here
about 3 or 4 weeks ago. I am so sorry that we didn't ask him
this question.
Ms. Peters. A number of members did ask him about it and he
said he was aware it was a problem and they were working on it.
I think they would work a lot faster if the threat of a
multimillion dollar fine from the SEC was hanging over their
heads.
Mr. Engel. And if I may, thank you.
Let me ask Mr. Stewart, since I have asked the other two
questions, the administration in its fiscal year 2019 budget
unfortunately proposed significant reductions for wildlife
trafficking and other key international conservation programs.
I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the impact that
those proposed funding levels have on our ability to
effectively address these issues. Obviously with less money you
can do less, but where do you see it impacting?
Mr. Stewart. Well, clearly more resources are good for the
effort. Certainly I think Fish and Wildlife having attaches in
various Embassies throughout Africa have been a great force. We
have been more focused though, I think, in terms of what to do
given the situation in trying to encourage public-private
partnerships to make sure that government funds that are
available are spent as effectively and efficiently as they can
be.
And I think a great example of that is the bill sponsored
by a number of members of the committee, the DELTA Act. It is
important that the bill calls for government to work with
business and to work with philanthropy in developing technology
and applying efforts across those areas. This is at least what
we are trying to be involved in to make up for any reduced
funding on the government part, and I think that provides a
great path.
And it is important as we embark on that as the DELTA Act
calls for it to if we are going to go in and try to work with
Angola to listen to Angola. And I think the upcoming codel that
this committee is undertaking is an important opportunity to
build relationships with the legislators and officials in
Angola. In our discussions with Angola, I have heard an
interest in diversifying the economy and when we look at the
promising Cuando Cubango in southern Angola there is a great
opportunity to see that development and conservation can go
hand in hand along with agriculture, fishing, and other
traditional----
Mr. Engel. Thank you.
Mr. Stewart. So that is what we are focused on.
Mr. Engel. Thank you. My time is up. Thank you, Madam
Chair.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen [presiding]. Thank you.
The Chair recognizes herself. First, I wanted to commend
Chairman Royce and the other co-chairs of the International
Conservation Caucus for their leadership and efforts to ensure
that the United States implements stronger and more effective
conservation policies. I am not only a proud member of the
Caucus, but I am also pleased to sign on to the DELTA Act that
we have been discussing as an original co-sponsor and I do
sincerely hope that we pass this measure after our hearing
today and quickly bring it to the floor for a vote.
The DELTA Act as you pointed out is vital to creating a
transnational strategy that leverages the experience and the
expertise of stakeholders in the private and public sectors to
combat wildlife trafficking and to spur economic growth in the
Okavango River basin. It also authorizes key U.S. assistance
programs to prioritize and promote development through
conservation and building partner nations' anti-poaching
capacity. We have a tremendous opportunity before us to take
action now while we still have the ability to protect Africa's
most expansive inland water system and it is still in all of
our interests to do so before it is too late. We also have an
opportunity to address conservation policy worldwide and that
is why this hearing comes at a critical time as we are now at a
crossroads. The high demand for ivory in Africa and other
wildlife products in Asia has seen poaching and trafficking
rise to new levels, new levels that threaten the very existence
of some of the planet's most precious species. But this in turn
has raised awareness and has led many nations to begin to take
meaningful action to help reverse this trend. And key to this
has been the United States leadership through initiatives such
as Chairman Royce's End Wildlife Trafficking Act and through
other conservation and trafficking programs as well as law
enforcement efforts.
Many of our colleagues on this committee have focused in
recent years on the role of transnational criminal
organizations and terror groups in illegal wildlife
trafficking. The high demand for some of these products has
made this illicit activity a lucrative one for these groups and
the lax security measures, whether the result of inefficient
resources, corruption, or other deficiencies makes this
practice a serious threat to U.S. national security interests.
By countering these illegal wildlife trafficking activities of
these illicit groups we have the added benefit of cutting off a
critical supply of revenue while also protecting endangered
species.
But to be successful as you have pointed out it has to
start with getting host country buy-in and it is not a one-
size-fits-all. You have cited some examples where it has worked
in some countries, but in many cases state actors are complicit
in these crimes with corruption oftentimes being a major
obstacle to accomplishing our objectives. We have seen this so
many times in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere.
So my question is how do we get host country buy-in from
governments, from local law enforcement agencies, from local
communities to join in efforts to curb this illicit practice
when corruption is so pervasive and it is so lucrative?
Ms. Peters. Ma'am, you have touched on what I think is one
of the core drivers of the conservation issue around the world,
corruption. I think in many countries, many parts of Africa,
corruption is the elephant's biggest threat. It can be very
challenging to find able and willing partners in these parts of
the world.
I had the opportunity to work with the Government of Gabon
as their advisor on transnational organized crime for 2 years
and that was an environment that was very, very corrupt. We
literally for a while couldn't find a single judge in the
country that wasn't on the take in order to bring the cases in.
The commander, Uvare Ekoga (phonetic), who I worked with used
to say that corruption was a far bigger threat to him than the
transnational criminal networks that we were trying to target.
But we were able to find slowly but surely trusted
partners. And with the support of President Bongo we were able
to put them in place. But it really did take that top-down
support from the President, from the presidency of Gabon, and
from his secret service and some of his police. If we hadn't
have had that we would have been lost.
Alternatively, the project I worked on in Kenya it took
more than 2 years to get the Akashas extradited and once they
came out and some of them started cooperating, it became clear
that everybody in the system, the prosecutors, the judges,
right up to some of the leaders of that country were taking
payoffs to stop their extradition from happening. And I can
cite other examples in other countries.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you. Those are excellent examples.
Ms. Peters. It is a terrible problem. We do really need to
make anti-corruption the focus and it is one the reasons that I
argue the U.S. needs to use its extraterritorial legislation
and not count on the notion that some of these smaller African
nations with very, very compromised judicial systems are going
to be able to take down these networks. We are going to have to
do it for them.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you so much. And I apologize, Mr.
Stewart and Dr. Bennett. I went on too long and I am out of
time.
Ms. Titus of Nevada?
Ms. Titus. Thank you. I want to thank Chairman Royce and
the ranking member Engel too for making this a priority for
this committee. I think it is very important. I am a co-sponsor
of the DELTA Act and I look forward to its passing. I also
thank the witnesses for the things that they have done in this
area and I think the United States has made some progress.
But I sense a trend that is concerning to me and some of
the things that you have mentioned I would like to point out
others. I think we are taking two steps forward and one step
back. If you look at what is happening lately, you have
proposed cuts to the budget that is going to make it difficult
to continue in this policy area. You have several regulatory
actions that have taken place with the Fish and Wildlife
Service. You have the memorandum on trophy hunting, now we are
going to consider trophies on a case-by-case basis as opposed
to having an overall policy. And the second one that is just
coming out more recently is that the extreme hunting rules that
allow us now to hunt baby bears and wolf cubs in their lairs. I
don't think that is a step in the right direction.
And then third, you have Interior Secretary, Mr. Zinke,
creating a International Wildlife Conservation Council. That is
kind of like calling the agency that allows more pollution the
Blue Sky Initiative. If you look at who is on the commission it
is somebody from the Safari Club, the Sportsmen's Foundation,
the director of hunting policy at the NRA, and several other
groups that promote trophy hunting. Now if we are going to lead
by example, I don't think these are very good examples and I
wonder if you all would comment on what you see as problems
that might be created by this new trend under the Trump
administration.
Doctor?
Ms. Bennett. Thank you very much indeed. We share your
concerns on all of those same issues. In relation to the trophy
hunting issue just picking up on that one, it is a particularly
important one because trophy hunting can be an extremely good
conservation tool if used appropriately. And it keeps a lot of
land, particularly in Africa but other parts of the world,
under wild habitat by giving an economic value for it if it is
well managed.
So, for example, we work on an operation on trophy hunting
of markhor sheep in Pakistan and support the local communities
there and it is helping them to conserve the markhor sheep. But
as an industry it is notoriously corrupt, and the U.S. by
having very strict regulations and a good policy previously has
not contributed to the problem. But by loosening the
regulations then that really is a concern because it is corrupt
all along the scale from getting licenses to hunt the wrong
species, the wrong age, the wrong sex.
And while the exporting countries where the hunting is
being done we don't always have a lot of control over, but we
have control over the importing countries for those trophies so
yes, we share that same concern. Thank you.
Ms. Titus. Ms. Peters?
Ms. Peters. I also want to second what Dr. Bennett said
about hunting in certain cases being a tool for conservation. I
also want to second what she said about the importance of it
being well regulated, that we have done a number of
investigations into poorly managed hunting programs or poaching
that is taking place under the guise of hunting particularly in
places like South Africa with regards to rhino.
So I agree. I don't think it is a good idea to be loosening
regulations in the United States around hunting. We have fairly
well managed hunting programs domestically and we should have
the same level of legislation about it internationally.
Ms. Titus. Mr. Stewart, do you want to add anything?
Mr. Stewart. You know, I certainly think the efforts
against international wildlife trafficking has a number of
great allies in Congress both on the Democratic and Republican
side, so I trust that those legislators will work to try to
maintain and restore adequate funding for the international
efforts and programs that the U.S. has been conducting that
have been proven to be effective.
Ms. Titus. Well, I think there is a lot to be said for
legislation, for regulation, but also for leading by example.
And a picture of a President's son standing over a dead
elephant or a giraffe doesn't seem to me to be leading by
example at a time when even China is moving in the opposite
direction. So I think it should be an all-encompassing policy
not just focused on the criminal aspects of it. So thank you
very much. I yield back.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you very much.
Mr. Smith of New Jersey?
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and thank you
to our distinguished panel for your leadership and for your
insights you have provided the committee today. Let me just ask
a few questions.
Tragically, an estimated 30,000 African elephants are
killed every year. Eastern and central Africa continue to face
high levels of poaching. In the last decade these regions have
lost 50 percent of their elephant populations. And while
populations in eastern Africa have stabilized, central African
elephant populations continue to decline and remain deeply
unstable for species survival. I wonder if you could explain to
us why these discrepancies. If you could also add what happens
in places like the DR Congo where there is extreme political
instability, how does that exacerbate the situation?
Let me also ask with regards to, and we have done this in
the past, as have you, in trying to push for a greater
integration of our antiterrorism efforts because obviously much
money is derived from this illegality, are we coordinating
better on that front to ensure that the LRA, groups like Boko
Haram, Al-Shabaab, and others are not deriving profits in order
to fund their nefarious enterprises?
And then finally on the issue of reducing demand in Asia,
obviously the ivory bans in China, Hong Kong, and Singapore
were very strong steps demonstrating political will, but I am
wondering if you can tell us--and, Dr. Bennett, you mentioned
making it illegal how important that was in China, but is there
also the perverse outcome where now that it is illegal it
drives up the price which again brings ill-begotten gains to
those who are poaching and selling ivory and other products
abroad?
Ms. Peters. I want to just start by saying that I think
that at any time one is fighting a serious crime issue like
this there have to be efforts both on the demand side and on
the supply side. My work tends to be on the supply side
focusing on disrupting criminal networks.
But one of the reasons, one of the many reasons that I am
passionate about the conservation issue is that there is that
there is some very, I would say, proactive work going on by a
number of big organizations like WildAid, a lot of celebrities
are involved. There are some creative efforts to figure out
what can be done to spur demand reduction, and as the other
panelists have said we have seen some very positive signs from
the government in China to tighten up its laws and to ban these
products.
But is it going to take work on both sides if we are going
to save these species. My objective when I got involved in
this, I never believed that we would be able to stop all
wildlife crime but I thought that maybe we could knock some of
the biggest networks off course enough to give these species
the chance to come back. And I think now and then we have
managed to get a punch in like when we got the Akashas
extradited, but it is often hard to feel optimistic with the
number of animals that are being lost.
Now you mentioned the conditions. I just want to make one
quick comment about that which is to say that there are some
organizations that even in very, very difficult circumstances
are able to save animal populations. There was a terrific story
yesterday in the New York Times about Africa parks efforts in
Chad in Zakouma National Park where they have brought back
elephant populations.
There is also a very interesting project in Mozambique in
Gorongosa where the wildlife had virtually been wiped out by
decades of civil war. At great expense and effort they have
reintroduced a lot of species and that wild area is being
restored. So these areas aren't necessarily lost forever. We
can bring these populations back again. The rhino was almost
poached to extinction in the 1980s and its populations were to
some degree restored. They are under very, very serious threat
again now, but their biggest enemies are crime and corruption.
That is what we need to focus on fighting if we are going to
save these species.
Mr. Smith. Thank you.
Mr. Stewart. I agree with Ms. Peters, and a couple points.
On the supply side, I think we have to just make it as
expensive and as harrowing as we possibly can to source ivory,
to source rhino horn, to source these animals that drive it.
Whether it is meeting the poachers on the ground or disrupting
their international networks, we need to hit it at all points
of the chain. I also agree with Ms. Peters, time and again it
has been shown whether it is Grumeti in the Serengeti, whether
it is in Gorongosa in Mozambique or elsewhere that if you
protect a habitat with a large carrying capacity it will
regenerate and the animals will come back. You just have to
protect them.
You asked about coordination. I think there is a lot more
that we can do on the defense and intelligence side in terms of
engaging them. Our experience is that the U.S. intelligence
community can and wants to do more. They have been tracking
transnational criminals and illicit financing deals for decades
and we have got to try to figure out how to build the systems
that have been used in other contexts to enable classified and
unclassified data to be used together to draw connections, to
drive useful data so that the classified information can be
protected.
But the lessons drawn from that in combination with other
information can give us the way to disrupt these networks.
There is more to do on that but the participants seem willing.
Ms. Bennett. Thank you very much indeed for the question.
To answer the question on why discrepancies that some of it is
tied in with corruption, why does Botswana have the largest
elephant population remaining, because if you look at
Transparency International's map of countries it is the least
corrupt country in sub-Saharan Africa. So that is one link to
it. Another link is the fact that you have a severe difference
between savanna and forest. Rainforests are, I mean I can't
even see from here to you in a rainforest so looking out for
poachers is incredibly difficult. You can do it by airplane in
savanna, you can't in forest. So it is much more difficult to
track and catch poachers in forest.
And the other issue is the forest elephants have actually
got a harder ivory than savanna elephants, and so for certain
types of carving it is preferred and that means it has a higher
price. So for all those reasons the rainforest countries tend
to be the more difficult ones to deal with on the elephant
poaching crisis.
In terms of the ivory price, in the year prior to the ban
actually coming into effect in China, the ivory price went well
down in anticipation of the closure of the market. What is
happening to it now the market is closed, I don't know, but
certainly in the year before, in 2017, the ivory price went
down very significantly in China.
The one confounding issue that is going on in China, which
is a little difficult to know quite how to deal with, is the
large amounts of sales of mammoth ivory. And if you go around
the markets in southern China now you see mammoth ivory for
sale and that is not illegal. There is more and more of it
becoming available due to climate change as the tundra in
Siberia melts and so there is more and more accessible mammoth
ivory.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you, Mr. Smith.
Mr. Connolly of Virginia?
Mr. Connolly. Thank you.
And Dr. Bennett, if you can pull that microphone just a
little closer to you, thank you. I appreciate it. Dr. Bennett,
do you think the Trump administration is helpful in its
policies with respect to what we are talking about here today?
Ms. Bennett. Thank you very much indeed. The core things
that are a real concern that we have talked about here today, I
mean it is partly as was pointed out earlier with some of the
loosening of some the regulations but the most important thing
is the cutting of the budgets. And we are not going to solve
this problem and the U.S. is not going to continue to be a
leader in helping solve the problem while budgets are being cut
because it is vital to have the resources to do this work
around the world. Thank you.
Mr. Connolly. Well, I mean it makes one wonder about the
commitment at all. Let me see. Last year, Interior Secretary
Ryan Zinke suspended all of the Interior Department's advisory
committees including the Advisory Council on Wildlife
Trafficking and the Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation
Council. Is that correct?
Ms. Bennett. Yes. That is correct for that----
Mr. Connolly. Is that a helpful step?
Ms. Bennett. No, it is not a terribly helpful step. And the
forming of the International Wildlife Conservation Council as
was pointed out with the composition of its members is also not
a very helpful step because it is not going to be a very
objective panel.
Mr. Connolly. So the U.S. Task Force on Wildlife
Trafficking which was codified by the End Wildlife Trafficking
Act has been inactive since Trump took office; is that correct?
Ms. Bennett. Can you repeat the question?
Mr. Connolly. Sorry?
Ms. Bennett. Sorry. Can you repeat the question?
Mr. Connolly. Yes, I can. I said, since Trump took office
the U.S. Task Force on Wildlife Trafficking which was codified
in the End Wildlife Trafficking Act by this Congress has been
inactive. Is that helpful?
Ms. Bennett. I am afraid I am not familiar with that. The
transnational organized executive order on integrated wildlife
trafficking has been helpful and that has been done under this
administration.
Mr. Connolly. The Trump administration in his budget
slashed funding for international conservation programs
including cutting USAID's biodiversity program by more than
two-thirds and eliminating the USFW's international species
program. Are those helpful actions?
Ms. Bennett. No, those are not helpful actions. And in my
written testimony we have actually put through all the cuts
that are in there and that is a very major cause for concern.
Thank you.
Mr. Connolly. I just think that is important to get on the
record. Earlier this year----
Mr. Chabot. Would the gentleman yield?
Mr. Connolly. Real briefly, yes.
Mr. Chabot. Okay. Very quickly, none of those cuts in the
Trump budget actually went into effect so they didn't really do
anything, I think; isn't that correct?
Mr. Connolly. Reclaiming my time.
Mr. Chabot. Okay.
Mr. Connolly. The point here is what the intent of the
administration is. And while Congress has shown restraint with
respect to Trump budget cuts, we are getting at what is the
nature of the commitment of this administration. And my point
is that Congress notwithstanding, we are retreating on the very
things we are having a hearing about here today led by the
President and his administration. And let me give another
example. Earlier this year, Dr. Bennett, the Trump
administration reversed, because it loves reversing, Obama-era
ban on big game trophies including elephant tusks and lion
hides under the supposed rationale that such trophies actually
support wildlife conservation.
Is there any evidence that actually trophy hunting
contributes to wildlife conservation, Dr. Bennett?
Ms. Bennett. Yes, it can contribute to wildlife
conservation if it is well managed. It needs to be very well
managed and very well controlled because it is so notoriously
corrupt. One reason it contributes is because of the amount of
land that is on the game reserves allowed for trophy hunting.
Mr. Connolly. But let me ask you, did the Wildlife
Conservation Fund support the original Obama ban on wildlife
trophy hunting?
Ms. Bennett. The ban that I am familiar with was the one
that was specific to two countries which were particularly
corrupt and were not managing their trophies well. And yes, we
supported that.
Mr. Connolly. So do you, presumably then if you supported
it, you did not support the reversal of that ban.
Ms. Bennett. No. There needs to be controls. There really
needs to be controls.
Mr. Connolly. Right.
Ms. Peters, any comment on that in terms of big game
trophy?
Ms. Peters. Not on the trophy issue, no. But on the issue
of cutting resources, I just want to say as somebody who has
been out on the front lines of where law enforcement is
fighting this problem, those law enforcement officials, U.S. in
particular, in Africa and Asia are incredibly under-resourced,
still. We have had requests, for example, from the U.S.
Treasury that would like to put some wildlife traffickers on
the OFAC list but they have never been given any budget to
investigate it, so they can only do it if it falls under some
other organized issue.
I have worked with agents from Homeland Security, Fish and
Wildlife law enforcement, and the Drug Enforcement
Administration while there will be one or two agents covering
12 or 13 different countries in Africa, each of them wracked by
organized crime and corruption. We are still, these folks are
so under-resourced out there and we really need to support them
better and support private organizations that are out there
trying to help them.
Mr. Connolly. So I take what you are saying, bottom line,
it is bad enough as it is--sweeping cuts in the program will
only make it worse.
Ms. Bennett. Exactly. That is what I am saying.
Mr. Connolly. I thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Royce [presiding]. Thank you. We go now to Mr. Joe
Wilson of South Carolina. Thank you, Mr. Connolly.
Mr. Wilson. And thank you, Mr. Chairman. I now yield for
such time as he may consume to Congressman Steve Chabot of
Ohio.
Mr. Chabot. I thank the gentleman for yielding and I won't
take up much of his time. But I just wanted to follow up on
what my friend and colleague from the Commonwealth of Virginia
just said about Trump administration's alleged cuts to various
programs that protect or save endangered animals or any animals
around the----
Mr. Connolly. Would my friend yield?
Mr. Chabot. It is not my time so let me talk.
Mr. Connolly. Well, I thought it was your time.
Mr. Chabot. Only shortly, but it is Mr. Wilson's time.
Mr. Connolly. Oh.
Mr. Chabot. He yielded to me.
In any event, the cuts that were talked about in the Trump
administration budget never happened. And then to say Congress
notwithstanding, well, our budgets and what we pass here along
ultimately with the President, whether it is an omnibus bill or
whatever it is, that is what ultimately matters to these
programs. And I think Congress over the years has been pretty
responsible in a bipartisan manner to make sure that we are
protecting as much as possible the endangered animals that we
are talking about whether they are in Africa or here in this
country for that matter.
So I just wouldn't leave the impression out there that
because the President in trying to deal with a $20 trillion
budget and having limited ability to do that oftentimes cuts
things all across the board and then when it gets to Congress
working with the administration we generally, together, do the
responsible thing which is not to cut back on these important
programs. And I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Wilson. And thank you, and indeed we appreciate the
active involvement by persons from Ohio and the Old Dominion of
Virginia.
Thank you for being here today. And for each of you, U.S.
support for anti-wildlife trafficking efforts abroad focus on
sourcing countries where the animals live including in Africa,
trafficking transit hubs and countries with high demand. U.S.
agencies involved in such programs include the Departments of
State, Interior, Justice, and Defense, as well as the FWS and
the U.S. Agency for International Development.
U.S. efforts support international conservation
biodiversity goals including law enforcement capacity building,
support for rule of law, and prosecutorial activities.
Sustainable conservation cannot occur without supporting local
communities through promoting economic growth, strengthening
health systems, creating jobs, providing education resources,
and support for good governments. U.S. engagement includes
working with national legislatures and departments of justice
across the continent to ensure that the legal framework has
clear and streamlined conservation and trafficking laws.
In fiscal year 2017, the U.S. provided just over $90
million to conservation and trafficking programs. The U.S. also
provides limited funding to multinational organizations that
implement wildlife trafficking and conservation programs such
as the U.S. development program and the World Bank's Global
Environment Facility.
The question for each of you beginning with Ms. Peters,
promoting conservation and wildlife protection requires a whole
of government approach with the State Department, USAID,
Department of Interior, and Department of Justice needing to
coordinate efforts abroad to combat illegal poaching and
trafficking. Have you seen the coordination play out? What can
U.S. do to improve our response?
Ms. Peters. Thank you for that question. I would like to
second a comment that Mr. Stewart made earlier which is to say
that the way that I believe that we can improve our
coordination is to engage our intelligence community, national
security apparatus, and law enforcement community in targeting
some of the key networks trafficking wildlife, because they are
not just trafficking wildlife. Even agencies that don't have a
mandate or an interest in conservation should be interested in
these networks for the myriad other crimes that they are
engaged in.
Thank you, sir.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you very much.
And Mr. Stewart?
Mr. Stewart. Yes, I agree. I think the one area where there
is the greatest potential for improvement is by again creating
systems that ensure that we can use classified as well as
unclassified data to draw the connections to identify the links
of how to disrupt the international, criminal international
syndicates that are involved in not only wildlife trafficking
but illegal fishing, human trafficking, illegal logging, et
cetera. These are bad guys and we should use all the resources
we can to go after them.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you.
And Dr. Bennett?
Ms. Bennett. Thank you very much indeed. Yes, the whole of
government approach clearly is the only way we are going to
tackle this one. And by doing so, clearly by tackling wildlife
crime in a sense it is almost a soft way in to improve
governance and stability across some of these troubled parts of
the world. But in addition to the intelligence side of things,
one of the other sectors which would be really great to be
fully involved is the financial sector to track money
laundering and follow the money. And the example of Al Capone
comes to mind. We might not be able to get them on wildlife
crimes, but we can get them because they are money laundering.
Thank you.
Mr. Wilson. And thank you very much, all of you, for your
thoughtful response. And thank you, Chairman Royce, and Eliot,
Ranking Member Engel, for the hearing today.
Mr. Royce. And if the gentleman would yield, we will work
with Treasury on that weak link in the chain that you have
raised, that you both raised.
We go now to Robin Kelly of Illinois.
Ms. Kelly. I would like to yield 1 minute of my time to
Gerry Connolly.
Mr. Connolly. I thank my friend from Illinois. I want to
respond to my friend from Ohio. Nice try, but budgets reflect
values. And the values reflected in the Trump actions in both
the budget and with respect to advisory bodies and policies and
regulations with respect to this subject, I believe, create a
hostile environment and show very little sympathy for the cause
we are examining today in this hearing. And yes, Congress did
not act on those budget recommendations. That doesn't mean they
didn't happen. That doesn't mean those values weren't
represented by the people who wrote that budget and signed by
that President. And that is the point made here and it
shouldn't be covered up. And it wasn't an alleged budget
recommendation, it was a budget. It was published. It was
presented to Congress. It is a matter of public record and I
think it is a shameful public record and it ought to be
exposed. That is my point and I yield back to my good friend
from Illinois.
Ms. Kelly. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding
this hearing today. As a proud co-sponsor of the DELTA Act, I
am glad that we are having this hearing to highlight
international illegal trade in wildlife. This issue is not only
an environmental issue that threatens to wipe out populations
of endangered species, but it is also a national security
issue.
Recently, high demand in Asia has been a driving force in
the wildlife product trafficking in Africa. This has led to
terrorist organizations like Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab engaging
in the wildlife trafficking to finance their operations. Some
countries in Asia such as China, Hong Kong, and Singapore have
implemented nearly complete bans on the trade of the elephant
ivory including putting in place significant restrictions on
the import of ivory and taking steps to stop their domestic
ivory trade. The trade, however, has continued with illegal
trade in endangered wildlife products including elephant ivory,
rhino horns, and turtle shells worth an estimated $7 billion to
$10 billion annually.
Dr. Bennett and Mr. Stewart, with the prevalence of
poaching on the African continent and its connection with
terrorism on the continent, African nations are a key player in
the reduction of illegal wildlife trafficking. What are the
best cost-effective practices that can be immediately
implemented to combat the trafficking?
Ms. Bennett. Thank you very much. One of the first things
is expanding what we know works on the ground across different
areas, because we have examples across Africa where actually
wildlife is being protected well but it needs to be taken up to
scale. So we need to take SMART patrols and the resources and
knowledge that we have got and take it up to scale across more
countries across Africa would be a key first step.
Ms. Kelly. Thank you.
Ms. Bennett. And the links with and to persuade governments
it is the links with security are really important. So, for
example, in northern Cameroon, a few years ago there was a
slaughter of about 300 elephants in Bouba Nijida National Park.
Those were not Cameroonians. They were people coming in on
horseback very heavily armed from countries to the north. And
so Cameroon was really forced to act on that because it was a
security issue and a national sovereignty issue. And so these
are all linked up----
Ms. Kelly. Thank you.
Ms. Bennett [continuing]. In terms of immediate things we
need to scale up.
Ms. Kelly. Mr. Stewart, anything to add?
Mr. Stewart. Yes, a couple quick things. I think the
increase recently in the budget of INL at the State Department
to address wildlife trafficking has been very helpful. They are
great at addressing drugs and other issues that we have been
more heavily engaged with over the years and they are bringing
that expertise to fight wildlife trafficking. I think support
for training that the Justice Department and the local
Embassies have been doing is very helpful. I think Fish and
Wildlife and the attaches in Africa have helped provide
connective tissue to ensure that enforcement agencies in
different countries coordinate better.
And, finally, I think the DELTA Act is a great example of
the right path to trod here. Going in there, listening to
countries like Angola, building relationships with legislators
and the executives there, and then explicitly in the DELTA Act
providing for a path to marshal assistance from government,
business, and philanthropy, for example, to help Angola on a
large scale look at land use planning over vast tracts, I think
that is critical now to be helpful and will pay off longer
term. And I think that will help show Angola and other
countries, who at least have expressed to us an interest in
diversifying their economy, how to do it. That conservation and
development are not inconsistent and will help foster what is
needed on a regional basis.
I think President Masisi in Botswana will bring renewed
energy from the Botswana side to address these transboundary
issues, and as Chairman Royce has pointed out there is a really
unique opportunity in Angola right now.
Ms. Kelly. I am going to squeeze in while he is not
looking.
How should, Ms. Peters, countries be framing the issue
around socioeconomic and political conditions, because if you
don't have opportunity then you tend to do things that you
shouldn't do, so how can we look at other things that they can
be doing besides this illegal trafficking?
Ms. Peters. Well, there are some successful alternative
livelihood programs in certain areas that have reduced
poaching. There are also numerous examples of places where the
conservation programs have shared the value of the national
park or the reserve with the local communities giving them a
stake in the success and giving them a stake in the
conservation and those tend to make the communities work harder
to protect the animals. But the other panelists have both made
this point better than I do. This isn't the area that I work
in, but it is extremely important.
Ms. Kelly. Thank you. I yield back.
Mr. Royce. Yes, one thing I would add in that, Robin, is
that what we have here in Angola now is a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity because we have peace, we have a new government
there, we have the opportunity to engage Angola and Namibia and
Botswana to preserve these resources.
So we go now to Mr. Ted Yoho of Florida.
Mr. Yoho. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate you all
sitting here and very informative and I appreciate the work you
have done on the endangered species and wildlife trafficking.
It is a scourge of humanity these people going after and
killing thousands and tens of thousands of elephants and
rhinoceros, and we will do anything we can to support that. And
I commend Chairman Royce for the work he has done over the
years.
And it funds so many bad behaviors that work against
civilized societies, but then you have got to, I think one of
you brought up you have the human encroachment, you have
development, you have the illegal trades whether it is drugs,
human trafficking or wildlife trading. And then I was reading
from the International Union of Conservation of Nature, made
quite clear on the reason of the recent decline on the addax,
playing the blame firmly on poaching by soldiers and these
soldiers were employed to protect Chinese-owned oil
installations in Niger.
And we see this over and over again. You will have a
country that comes in, they don't have the same values we do
and they will do whatever they can for enriching their own
country. They went on to say that the IUCN said the addax
habitat in the surrounding region became a hot bed of drug
smuggling, weapons trafficking, political insurgency, and
illegal wildlife trade following the collapse of Libya, as we
all know. Thomas Rabeil of the Saharan Conservation Fund added
that the companies with commercial interests in the region,
notably China national petroleum corporations, should cooperate
with wildlife authorities to contribute to the addax
conservation. And I think that is something as these companies
and countries go in to develop resources there has to be some
kind of connectivity that if you are going to do this you need
to work to protect and preserve these.
What are your thoughts on that? Dr. Bennett?
Ms. Bennett. Thank you very much indeed. I couldn't agree
more it is a problem, but it is a problem that we are
increasingly aware of and doing our best to address. And one
way of doing it is, for example, on INL funding is getting the
links across the continent. So, for example, we now have
someone working with WCS and the government in Uganda to work
with the Chinese business community in Uganda to make them
aware of the poaching issue and to become supportive partners.
And if that works, it is a new program but if it works that can
be a really nice example of engaging the Chinese community
working in Africa.
Mr. Yoho. Do they have, any other countries have or those
countries over to there, do they have any policies in place
that conservation must be a policy of development of those
resources? Does anybody know?
Ms. Bennett. I am not aware that countries have that as a
policy.
Mr. Yoho. Mr. Stewart?
Mr. Stewart. Africa, you mean African nations having that
as a policy?
Mr. Yoho. Yes.
Mr. Stewart. I think Botswana over the years has been
particularly rigorous in scrutinizing investments by the
Chinese, but I am not sure how formal that is.
Mr. Yoho. Okay.
Ms. Peters, do you have any idea?
Ms. Peters. I am not aware of any country having a----
Mr. Yoho. Sounds like that is something for us to do here
then, doesn't it, that we can direct some of that. We have a
new foreign aid bill going out that is tied into USAID that we
can help direct some of that. And I just want to add that also
the IUCN also said additional efforts to monitor and secure
addax in the wild as well as broad range of other conservation
actions include rebuilding wild populations with captive-bred,
i.e., hunting preserves.
And if you look at, and this is where we run into a little
bit of a problem here in the United States, if you look out in
Texas there is 11,000 oryx in captivity. There is over 800 dama
gazelles and over 5,000 addax out in Texas, and they are on
hunting preserves. And we have a problem because if people hunt
them they can't keep the trophy. And I know that goes against
what Chairman Royce is advocating, and I think there ought to
be a way that we can come to an agreement that if they are
captive raised, you can tell by DNA where they come from and we
can select that way, that is a way of preserving these breeds
that are being decimated and extinct around the world because
of illegal activity.
And it is ironic that one of the things that is going to
preserve them is the thing that does kill them. It is the
hunting preserves that have good conservation measures in
there. But it says in here that the ranchers, that they can't
keep these if they are not allowed to hunt them and if a person
can't take the trophy back they aren't going to hunt them,
therefore those are going to go out of business and it is going
to put more pressure on the wild.
So just throwing out there for consideration and I
appreciate your time and expertise.
Mr. Royce. Dr. Bennett, do you want to comment maybe on
some of the complexities or tradeoffs of this and maybe what
could be done in terms of conservation management with this
respect? You had mentioned earlier that one of the concerns you
had with this situation in two countries specifically where
there was corruption that there wasn't a way forward in terms
of proper management but that it might be possible if we
eliminated that corruption to have an effective program that
would actually help sustain these populations.
Ms. Bennett. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Yes, that
is exactly right, if it is well managed. And I mean as, and I
will take Tanzania as an example and Tanzania has 40,000 square
kilometers under national parks totally protected. It has
140,000 square kilometers under game reserves which is
maintained as wild lands by the fact that it has some economic
money largely coming from lion hunting in that particular case.
And so if you lose that 140,000 square kilometers you have lost
more than half of the wild lands for wildlife within Tanzania.
But the industry is notoriously corrupt there but if we can
get it so that it is well managed, and that is going to take a
huge amount of investment and it is going to take a lot of work
by a lot of people and it is also going to take a lot of open
mindedness because a lot of people are not comfortable with it
as a conservation tool, but if so that could keep a lot of
lands under wildlife that otherwise would turn into sort of soy
plantations or something like that and we would lose a lot of
species.
Mr. Royce. Right.
Ms. Bennett. But it does need to be very well regulated and
managed and we need to be able to get a hold of the corruption.
Mr. Royce. Thank you, Dr. Bennett.
We go to Tom Marino of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Marino. Thank you, Chairman, and thank you all for
being here. I have been known to be an animal lover to the
point of when I live out in the country of stopping my truck
and getting a turtle out of the middle of the road to get it
over to where it is headed and slamming the brakes on for a
chipmunk.
As a state and Federal prosecutor we have put people in
prison domestically for hunting out of season, for shooting
protected animals and birds such as eagles, and for importing
hides and protected animals internationally as well. I like the
idea because we put some people away based on the fact at the
Federal level that we followed the money. And as a prosecutor,
as a U.S. attorney I did that consistently in drug cases.
Follow the money. You may not be able to get the person with
the drugs but you can follow the money and put them away from
that perspective.
I am constantly watching the programs on the History
Channel and Discovery about what we are doing to worldwide
animals and how we are losing them. I have been known to get in
a couple of fights with people who I see beating an animal or a
dog or a cat or something to that nature. That is how obsessed
I am with this, because who is going to protect animals if we
don't? And often these individuals are called animals that do
this, but that is an insult to the animal kingdom, calling
somebody an animal that would hurt an animal other than
legitimate hunting.
But what do we do with individuals in other countries who
it just, they don't think twice about killing these animals?
What do we do about people who do this on a basis to survive or
feed their families and what do we do with those individuals
that are running a business as far as putting them away for a
very long time when we find them?
Any response to any of that?
I will start with Ms. Peters.
Ms. Peters. Sir, it is an excellent question. I would like
to make a point that we have done analyses of ivory and rhino
horn supply chains in a number of sub-Saharan African countries
including South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda to some extent,
and Gabon. And each of those places, of course there are some
people who will hunt for sustenance, but it is a very, very
small impact on the environment compared to the poaching, what
is going on because of poaching.
Most poachers, the guy that actually pulls the trigger on
the .458 or the 12 caliber doesn't even have the money to buy
the bullet. Those are bullets that sell for $20 to $30 a pop.
He doesn't have the money to fill the tank that went in the
vehicle that drove him into the forest. All of that has to be
financed. We have been working with the agencies that we have
been supporting to follow the money around wildlife trafficking
and get it up to the point where the poaching gets financed and
to try to cut that funding. It is incredibly important.
We have also worked with the human trafficking NGO, Liberty
Asia, out of Hong Kong, to develop a system that provides
typologies about wildlife trafficking networks and human
trafficking networks to banks around the world. So my colleague
Kathleen, here, is briefing a number of correspondent banks
tomorrow about a major wildlife trafficking network in
Tanzania. We have briefed banks around the world and they are
starting to shut down the activity as they see it, in part
because they recognize that these traffickers are also moving
drugs and guns and things that they need to worry about from a
legal perspective.
Mr. Marino. All right, thank you.
Mr. Stewart and Dr. Bennett, unfortunately between the two
of you, you have 30 seconds.
Mr. Stewart. I agree with Ms. Peters in terms of going at
this at the international level, but I think it is also
important to note--corruption is a big problem. But in some
instances local prosecutors, local judges don't have the
resources to do the basics of how you secure a crime scene, how
you prosecute a case, so efforts to train them in that is
important.
There has also been a lot of success for specialized
discipline enforcement units. I think particularly the National
and Transnational Serious Crimes Investigation Unit in
Tanzania, they work with specialized prosecutors, work with
specialized judges and have had particular success in getting
through prosecutions, reaching to the farther out edges of
syndicates, even in an environment as Dr. Bennett indicated has
corruption challenges. So I think that is a model that can be
useful in any of these challenging circumstances.
Mr. Marino. Thank you. My time is expired. Thank you.
Mr. Royce. All right, let me thank, Ms. Peters, let me
thank you, Mr. Stewart, Dr. Bennett, all of you for your good
work on this issue and your testimony here today. And we are
going to be in touch with all three of you as we try to address
some of the issues that you raised here today. So for now in
terms of this hearing, the hearing stands adjourned.
[Hearing adjourned.]MARKUP OF H.R. 4819, DELTA
ACT deg.
Chairman Royce. We now meet pursuant to notice to markup
H.R. 2819, the DELTA Act.
Without objection, the Royce Amendment 119 in the nature of
a substitute, which was provided to all of you last week, will
be our base text, and is considered read, and open for
amendment at any point on H.R. 4819, the DELTA Act.
[The information referred to follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Royce. All members may have 5 calendar days to
submit statements or extraneous material for the record.
And I am now going to recognize myself to speak on this
bill.
As we have heard today, greater transparency cooperation is
essential to advancing conservation and smart development in
the Okavango River Basin. To that end, today we will consider
H.R. 4819, the Defending Economic Livelihoods and Threatened
Animals or DELTA Act.
Let me give you the three points in terms of what this
legislation will do. It will strengthen and streamline
coordination among the Governments of the United States,
Angola, Botswana, and Namibia, as well as non-governmental
organizations in the private sector to protect the basin there.
Second, it is going to prioritize wildlife trafficking and
anti-poaching programs in the greater region to help save
elephants and other endangered species.
And lastly, it will promote sound economic growth for local
communities through responsible natural resource management.
So I want to thank the International Conservation Caucus
co-chair, Representative Jeff Fortenberry, and this committee's
ranking member, Mr. Engel, for partnering with me on this
measure.
And I now recognize the ranking member, Mr. Engel, for his
remarks.
Mr. Engel. Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this markup
of H.R. 4819, the DELTA Act. I would like to also begin by
thanking Mr. Fortenberry of Nebraska, a former member of this
committee, for his initiative in putting forward this
legislation.
And as I mentioned before, I would like to commend you, Mr.
Chairman, for your extraordinary leadership on international
conservation issues and particularly the fight against wildlife
trafficking for many, many years. Thank you for what you have
done.
The Okavango River Basin in Angola, Botswana, and Namibia
supports an amazing array of wildlife, including the largest
remaining concentration of elephants in Africa. It is also home
to more than 1 million people. This important legislation
requires the development of a strategy to encourage the
sustainable management of natural resources in the river basin,
including the protection of wildlife. This strategy will
require input from a wide range of stakeholders, including
national governments, local communities, non-governmental
organizations, and the private sector.
The goal here is to support economic development for the
residents of the region, while preserving unique ecosystems and
protecting wildlife.
I would also like to highlight that the DELTA Act has the
support of key wildlife associations, including the Wildlife
Conservation Society based on my hometown of Bronx, New York
and we did hear Dr. Bennett, who is from the Wildlife
Conservation Society.
Mr. Chairman, I am proud to be an original co-sponsor of
this important legislation and I urge all of our colleagues to
support it.
I yield back.
Chairman Royce. Do any other members seek recognition to
speak on this measure? Mr. Smith.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Over the decades it has become apparent that conservation
efforts must be transboundary and engage entire regions to
advance sustainable solutions. Endangered and threatened
species, natural landscapes, and poaching networks do not know
national boundaries. This requires governments and conservation
partners to share real-time information, move freely across
transnational boundaries, and coordinate park protection
responsibilities.
These complex arrangements must be outlined in
intergovernmental agreements to equitably share resource
protection and benefits. As with our national parks, regional
cooperation can better facilitate economic development through
developing infrastructure and a tourism economy.
Therefore, I strongly commend Jeff Fortenberry for offering
H.R. 4819, the DELTA Act, and you, Mr. Chairman, for bringing
it and the ranking member before the committee today, which
would encourage this kind of transboundary coordination between
Angola, Botswana, and Namibia, and the greater Okavango River
Basin.
I yield back the balance.
Chairman Royce. Any other members seeking time? If not--
yes, Mr. Wilson.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Royce. Joe Wilson of South Carolina.
Mr. Wilson. And thank you, Mr. Chairman. And you definitely
want to recognize me because I want to begin by thanking you
and Ranking Member Eliot Engel's work with Congressman Jeff
Fortenberry for providing the Defending Economic Livelihoods
and Threatened Animals Act, also known as the DELTA Act, before
the committee.
The Okavango is the fourth largest river system in southern
Africa and has no outlet to the sea. Instead, the water empties
into a land that flourishes with wildlife. The same river
supports over 1 million people, potentially creating a long-
term tug of war for the resources of the delta.
Water resource management has become an increasing concern
in the region, such as in Cape Town, South Africa where the
infamous Zero Day or the day when the taps run dry, was
projected to strike earlier this month but has been delayed
until next year. This Act promotes technical assistance through
sound water management that is both safe for the environment
and wildlife but also aligns with a developing human
population.
In the long run, this modest level of coordination helps
ensure that countries interconnected by the Okavango River
Basin will continue to remain stable in democracies. The DELTA
Act encourages transborder cooperation among Botswana, Angola,
Namibia, and others in order to develop law enforcement and
park ranger capabilities, which will deter criminals and
terrorist organizations from poaching and smuggling.
Being a national park ranger is not a safe occupation. On
May the 11th, a 25-year-old park ranger in the Democratic
Republic of Congo named Rachel Masika Baraka was killed while
protecting tourists from abduction. She was the eighth park
ranger killed this year. Though this park is much further north
of Botswana, continued cooperation can help ensure that the
Okavango remains peaceful.
This bill acknowledges the opportunity and value provided
by coordinating the private sector donors and non-governmental
organizations with governmental institutions in advancing
conservation efforts through public-private partnerships.
I am pleased to support and co-sponsor H.R. 4819, the DELTA
Act and I urge its passage.
And I yield back my time.
Chairman Royce. Thank you.
Any other members seeking time? Hearing no--or anyone
seeking amendment?
Hearing no amendments, the chair now moves that the
committee agree to H.R. 4819, as amended.
All those in favor, say aye.
All those opposed, no.
In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. The measure
is agreed to.
Without objection, 4819 is ordered favorably reported in
the form of a single amendment in the nature of a substitute.
Staff is directed to make any technical and conforming
changes and the chair is authorized to seek House consideration
under suspension of the rules.
So let me end by thanking all the members for their
participation today. This markup is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:48 a.m., the committee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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