[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 116 (Friday, June 14, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 30255-30256]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-15201]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
Notification; Review of the Effectiveness of the Convention
AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of meeting.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announces a
public meeting to discuss an international study of the effectiveness
of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Fauna and Flora (CITES), and announces the availability for public
comment of a questionnaire as part of this study. This study is the
result of a decision of the Ninth Meeting of the Conference of the
Parties to CITES in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in November 1994. This
decision gave the CITES Standing Committee the responsibility to
conduct a review of the effectiveness of the provisions and
implementation of the Convention, and to report its findings to the
next meeting of the Conference of the Parties. An international
contractor in the United Kingdom has been engaged for this study by the
CITES Standing Committee, and has produced a questionnaire for
governments to respond to. The Service, in preparing the U.S.
government response, seeks the comments of interested non-governmental
organizations. The questionnaire itself is extensive and would
therefore be very expensive and time consuming to reproduce here. The
Service prefers to make this questionnaire available by electronic
means if possible. However, should some member of the public not have
access to the transfer of this questionnaire by electronic means,
alternate arrangements such as faxing or mailing of copies will be
made. Public input from written comments received by the Service will
be considered in formulating the United States response to this
questionnaire.
DATES: The Service will consider comments and information received by
July 15, 1996.
ADDRESSES: The public meeting will be held at 10:00 a.m. on July 19,
1996, in the Auditorium of Marymount University, 2807 N. Glebe Road,
Arlington, Virginia. Comments on the questionnaire should be sent to
Dr. Susan Lieberman, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of
Management Authority, 4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Room 430, Arlington, VA
22203. Requests for copies of the questionnaire should either be sent
electronically to ``[email protected]'', via regular mail, or
via fax to (703) 358-2280. Electronic requests for copies of the
questionnaire should have as their subject line ``SEND QUESTIONNAIRE''.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Susan S. Lieberman, U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, Office of Management Authority, telephone (703)358-
2095, or E-mail to Susan__L[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: At the Ninth Meeting of the Conference of
the Parties to CITES in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, November 1994 (COP9),
the Conference of the Parties decided to assign the CITES Standing
Committee the task of conducting a review of the effectiveness of the
provisions and implementation of the Convention, and to report its
findings to the next meeting of the Conference of the Parties. This
decision is found in COP9 document number Com. 9.10. The CITES Standing
Committee plans to conduct this review in several phases, the first of
which is incorporated in the questionnaire made available by this
Notice.
The CITES Standing Committee was directed to appoint a team to
undertake the review including an independent consultant and two
individuals chosen by the CITES Standing Committee for the information
gathering portion of the project. These two members would ensure
efficient access to information about the Convention and complement the
expertise made available by the independent consultant. On December 21,
1994, the CITES Secretariat published Notification to the Parties No.
831, which contained a call for proposals from prospective consultants
to conduct the study on the effectiveness and implementation of the
Convention. The firm of Environmental Resources Management (ERM), based
in London, United Kingdom, was ultimately selected for the task. That
selection was made by a Monitoring Committee of CITES Parties,
including several representatives to the CITES Standing Committee. The
Monitoring Committee, which was selected by the Standing Committee, is
made up of representatives of the following governments: Argentina,
Canada, Japan, Namibia, New Zealand, and United Kingdom. The study
itself and the report that is produced will be monitored and reviewed
by the same Monitoring Committee and will be presented to the December
1996 meeting of the CITES Standing Committee. The CITES Standing
Committee selected Jaques Berney (retired Deputy Secretary General of
CITES) and Marshall Jones (Assistant Director for International
Affairs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) or Dr. Susan Lieberman (Chief,
CITES Operations Branch, Office of Management Authority, U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service), as the technical advisors on the project.
The initial phase of this review is designed to collate information
including but not necessarily limited to the following: The stated and
implied objectives of the Convention and their continued relevance to
the conservation of wild fauna and flora; the degree of effectiveness
of conservation for representative species listed in the three
Appendices of CITES and the extent of this degree of conservation that
can be attributed to the implementation of the Convention; the
relationship of the Convention to other global or regional conservation
treaties or agreements and how the objectives of the Convention may be
enhanced or hindered by the existence and implementation of these
treaties or agreements; the ease and effectiveness of implementation,
including enforcement, of the Convention in Party states; and the
anticipated and actual roles of various participants in the
implementation of the Convention, including Party states, non-Party
states, national and international conservation organizations, and
national and international trade and development organizations.
ERM, the contractor on the study, has transmitted a Questionnaire
to all CITES
[[Page 30256]]
Parties (currently 132 countries), as well as international non-
governmental organizations. In addition, ERM is meeting in person with
several governments, in order to obtain more detailed responses to the
questionnaire and in order to assist ERM in preparing its report on the
effectiveness of the Convention. Each country that is visited has been
asked by ERM to independently decide how to consult with neighboring
countries, as well as with non-governmental organizations; the
questionnaire sent to the Parties recommends broad consultation. The
United States supports an exceedingly broad, transparent, and
consultative process, with active input from all non-governmental
organizations interested in the effectiveness of CITES and the
conservation of species subject to international trade. ERM has stated
that it is limited in the countries it plans to visit, based on limited
time and funds. The Monitoring Committee mentioned above worked with
ERM to plan the country visits. ERM plans to consult with the following
CITES regions and countries during June and July 1996; those
consultations will either involve a personal delegation (an ERM
representative) or a consultation in-country by ERM's regional office
staff: Europe (delegation to Brussels for meetings with the European
Commission and European CITES Committee), Asia (Japan and Thailand for
the delegation, China and India for consultations); Oceania (Australia
and Papua New Guinea for consultations); North America (delegation to
the United States); Africa (delegation to Zimbabwe, consultations in
Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, and Senegal), and Central and
South America and the Caribbean (consultations in Argentina, Brazil,
Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and possibly Trinidad and Tobago). The
United States will make every effort to include representatives of
Canada and Mexico in the meetings and consultations in the United
States.
The United States will review comments received from national and
international non-governmental organizations based in the United
States, in the formulation of its response to the questionnaire.
Representatives of the Service, as CITES Management and Scientific
Authority, along with other federal agencies, will meet with the ERM
delegation to provide input on the U.S. responses to the questionnaire
and the U.S. views on how to improve the effectiveness of the
Convention. The public meeting with non-governmental organizations that
is announced in this Notice will provide those organizations with an
opportunity to provide input directly to ERM. ERM will use that
information in the preparation of its report to the Standing Committee.
Author: This notice was prepared by Mark Phillips and Dr. Susan
S. Lieberman, Office of Management Authority, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service (703/358-2095; fax 703/358-2280).
Dated: June 6, 1996.
J.L. Gerst,
Acting Director.
[FR Doc. 96-15201 Filed 6-13-96; 8:45 am]
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