[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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