Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability 1

tional Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). This treaty,now signed by 160 countries, lists some 900 speciesthat cannot be commercially traded as live specimensor wildlife products because they are in danger of extinction.The treaty also restricts international trade of29,000 other species because they are at risk of becomingthreatened.CITES has helped reduce international trade inmany threatened animals, including elephants, crocodiles,and chimpanzees. However, the effects of thistreaty are limited because enforcement is difficult andvaries from country to country, and convicted violatorsoften pay only small fines. Also, member countriescan exempt themselves from protecting any listedspecies. And much of the highly profitable illegal tradein wildlife and wildlife products goes on in countriesthat have not signed the treaty.The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), ratifiedby 186 countries, legally binds signatory governmentsto reversing the global decline of biologicaldiversity. The treaty requires each signatory nation toinventory its biodiversity and develop a national conservationstrategy—a detailed plan for managing andpreserving its biodiversity.Implementing this treaty has been slow becausesome key countries such as the United States have notratified it. Also, it has no severe penalties or other enforcementmechanisms.How Can National Laws Help ProtectEndangered Species? A Tough andControversial Act in the United StatesOne of the world’s most far-reaching and controversialenvironmental laws is the U.S. EndangeredSpecies Act passed in 1973.The United States controls imports and exports of endangeredwildlife and wildlife products through twolaws. One is the Lacey Act of 1900. It prohibits transportinglive or dead wild animals or their parts acrossstate borders without a federal permit.The other is the Endangered Species Act of 1973(ESA), which was amended in 1982, 1985, and 1988. Itwas designed to identify and legally protect endangeredspecies in the United States and abroad. This actis probably the most far-reaching environmental lawever adopted by any nation, which has made it controversial.Canada and a number of other countries havesimilar laws.The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) isresponsible for identifying and listing endangered andthreatened ocean species, and the U.S. Fish andWildlife Services (USFWS) identifies and lists all otherendangered and threatened species. Any decision byeither agency to add or remove a species from the listmust be based on biological factors alone, without considerationof economic or political factors.The act also forbids federal agencies to carry out,fund, or authorize projects that would jeopardize anendangered or threatened species or destroy or modifythe critical habitat it needs to survive. However, in2003 Congress exempted the Defense Departmentfrom this requirement and from the Marine MammalProtection Act.On private lands, fines up to $100,000 and oneyearimprisonment can be imposed to ensure protectionof the habitats of endangered species. This part ofthe act has been controversial because many of thelisted species live totally or partially on private land.The act also makes it illegal for Americans to sellor buy any product made from an endangered orthreatened species. These species cannot be hunted,killed, collected, or injured in the United States, andthis protection has been extended to threatened andendangered foreign species.In 2003, however, the Bush administration proposedeliminating protection of foreign species, causingan uproar by conservationists. With this rule change,American hunters, circuses, and the pet industry couldpay individuals or governments to kill, capture, andimport animals that are on the brink of extinction inother countries.xHOW WOULD YOU VOTE? Should the U.S. EndangeredSpecies Act no longer protect threatened and endangeredspecies in other countries? Cast your vote online athttp://biology.brookscole.com/miller14.Between 1973 and 2004, the number of U.S.species on the official endangered and threatened listincreased from 92 to about 1,260 species—60% of themplants and 40% animals. According to a 2000 study bythe Nature Conservancy, about one-third of the country’sspecies are at risk of extinction, and 15% of allspecies are at high risk. This amounts to about 30,000species, compared to the 1,260 species currently protectedunder the ESA. The study also found that manyof the country’s rarest and most imperiled species areconcentrated in a few hot spots (Figure 12-14, p. 242).What Are Critical Habitat Designationsand Recovery Plans? How to RebuildPopulationsThe Endangered Species Act requires protecting thecritical habitat and developing a recovery plan foreach listed species, but lack of funding and politicalopposition hinder these efforts.The ESA generally requires the secretary of the interiorto designate and protect the critical habitat needed forhttp://biology.brookscole.com/miller14241