Bush Administration Abandons Recovery of Jaguar

[Guest guest]

Bush Administration Abandons Recovery of Jaguar

 

SILVER CITY, N.M — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced January 17

that it will not prepare a recovery plan for the endangered jaguar and will not

attempt to recover the species in the United States or throughout its range in

North and South America. The decision was signed by Fish and Wildlife Service Dale Hall on January 7, 2008.

 

 

 

The decision is an attempt to moot an active lawsuit by the Center for

Biological Diversity seeking a recovery plan and designation of protected

critical habitat areas for the New World's largest cat. The decision also seeks

to circumvent the Endangered Species Act from slowing Bush administration plans

to build thousands of miles of wall on the U.S.-Mexico border without

environmental review. The wall will short-circuit current efforts by jaguars to

recolonize the United States.

 

In June 2007, more than 500 members of the American Society of Mammalogists met

in Albuquerque and unanimously passed a resolution calling on the Fish and

Wildlife Service to develop a recovery plan for the jaguar. The resolution

concluded that " Habitats for the jaguar in the United States, including Arizona

and New Mexico, are vital to the long-term resilience and survival of the

species, especially in response to ongoing climate change. "

 

 

 

Dr. Joe Cook, professor of biology at the University of New Mexico and board

member of the American Society of Mammalogists, pointed out that historically,

the United States has taken a leadership role in international conservation:

" Unfortunately, this decision is consistent with an abdication of leadership in

the field of conservation of wildlife over the past seven years. "

 

 

 

" This is a jaguar death sentence, " said Michael Robinson of the Center for

Biological Diversity.

 

 

 

The Fish and Wildlife Service decision invoked a 2004 policy stating that

recovery plans need not be prepared for species whose " historic and current

ranges occur entirely under the jurisdiction of other countries. " The jaguar,

however, historically ranged from Monterey Bay, California, to the Appalachian

Mountains, and currently occurs in southern Arizona and New Mexico.

 

 

 

" The decision violates the Endangered Species Act, U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service policy, and common sense, " said Robinson. " The jaguar is clearly a U.S.

species. "

 

 

 

The decision also asserts that " actions taken within the United States are

likely to benefit a small number of individual jaguars peripheral to the

species, with little potential to affect recovery of the species as a whole " and

that conservation plans outside the United States are adequate to recover the

species.

 

 

 

" If this same logic had applied previously, there would never have been a

recovery plan written that resulted in reintroduction of gray wolves to the

Yellowstone National Park or the Southwest, " said Robinson. The rationale is

also contradicted by the decision's own admission that conservation plans

outside the United States " have thus far fallen short in stemming the decline of

the jaguar. "

 

 

 

Directly contradicting the assertion that a recovery plan can not facilitate

conservation of an international species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

issued an international recovery plan for the whooping crane in March 2007.

 

 

 

Robinson added: " If the U.S. can work across borders to develop an international

recovery plan for the whooping crane, why can't it do so for the jaguar? Perhaps

its because the Bush administration is dead set on walling off the U.S.-Mexico

border. "

 

 

 

" If the U.S. cannot make a genuine effort to conserve the jaguar within our

borders than how can we ask developing countries to step up to the plate to

support this vital part of their fauna? " asked Dr. Cook.

 

 

 

Contact Info:

 

 

 

Michael Robinson

Center for Biological Diversity

Tel : 575-313-7017

 

 

 

Dr. Joe Cook

Professor of Biology

University of New Mexico

Board Member of the American Society of Mammalogists

Tel : 505-277-1358

 

 

What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know, it's what we know for sure

that just ain't so.

- Mark Twain