From: Kieran Suckling [ksuckling@sw-center.org]
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 1999 6:43 PM
To: Recipient list suppressed
Subject: BIODIVERSITY ALERT #215
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             CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

           <www.sw-center.org>      12-299      #215
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§ GOOD NEWS FOR HAWAIIAN SPECIES- LAWSUIT MOVES MOTH,
   SNAIL, SPIDER AND AMPHIPOD MOVE TOWARD RECOVERY

§ ENVIRONMENTAL/CHRISTIAN ALLIANCE PREVAILS AGAIN
   RARE TEXAS PLANT LISTED AS ENDANGERED SPECIES

§ TUCSON ACTIVISTS ARRESTED IN PROTEST AGAINST W.T.O.
   LABOR/ENVIRONMENT/HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS STAND
   TOGETHER AGAINST CORPORATE DOMINANCE

§ BABBITT DENOUNCES KILLING OF SAN PEDRO RIVER,
   INACTION BY LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

GOOD NEWS FOR HAWAIIAN SPEICIES- LAWSUIT MOVES
MOTH, SNAIL, SPIDER AND AMPHIPOD MOVE TOWARD RECOVERY
In response to a 8-31-99 lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity,
the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has agreed to review four Hawaiian
invertebrates for Endangered Species Act protection. Blackburn’s sphinx
moth, Newcomb’s snail, and the Kaua`i cave wolf spider and amphipod
have all been proposed for listing as endangered species. The terms of the
settlement require the Fish & Wildlife Service to make a final listing
determination by 1-26-00.

Hawai`i’s largest native insect, Blackburn’s sphinx moth was believed
extinct until a single population was discovered on Maui in 1984. Habitat
degradation by goats and Hawai`i National Guard training activities
severely threaten it with complete extinction. The two Kaua`i cave species
are limited to a four square mile area. At least 75% of their historic habitat
has been rendered uninhabitable by uncontrolled development. The
Newcomb’s snail is restricted to six streams on Kaua`i, each stream
supports a single snail population. It has declined by up to 60%
since 1925.

The Center was represented by Kapua Sproat and David Henkin of the
Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund (Honolulu).
     _____________________

ENVIRONMENTAL & CHRISTIAN ALLIANCE PREVAILS ONCE AGAIN
RARE TEXAS PLANT LISTED AS ENDANGERED SPECIES
In response to a 6-16-99 lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity
and Christians Caring for Creation, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service listed
the Zapata bladderpod as an endangered species on 11-22-99. A
member of the mustard family, the bladderpod is known to occur in only
four locations in Starr and Zapata Counties, Texas. It was proposed for
ESA protection 1976 due to habitat loss from urban sprawl, road
construction, overgrazing, and oil and gas drilling. Because of political
pressure, however, the Fish & Wildlife Service took no further action,
allowing the rare plant to decline for another 23 years- until it was
sued.

Three other species involved in the lawsuit- the Pecos sunflower,
Devil's River minnow and Deseret milk-vetch- were listed as endangered
on 10-20-99. The case was argued by Geoff Hickcox of Kenna &
Hickcox (Durango, Colorado).
     ______________________

TUCSON ACTIVISTS ARRESTED IN PROTEST AGAINST W.T.O.
LABOR/ENVIRONMENT/HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS STAND
TOGETHER
Five Tucson activists, including staff members of the Center for
Biological Diversity, were among hundreds of peaceful protesters
arrested on Wednesday for speaking out at the meeting of the World
Trade Organization in Seattle. In an outrageous and futile attempt
to squelch opposition to the WTO, the city has established a 7pm
curfew and banned public gathering and free speech. 50,000
labor, environment and human rights activists have gathered from
around the world to denounce the WTO's disastrous effects on the
environment and workers rights. They shut down the first day of the
meeting and have catapulted the secretive WTO onto televisions and
newspapers across the world.

The World Trade Organization was created in 1995 to deregulate
trade across national borders. Comprised of representatives from
money and power-glutted transnational corporations, the WTO has
given itself de facto power to supersede federal regulations if they are
deemed to be a barriers to "free trade". Regulations protecting the
environment, endangered species, worker's rights and communities
from industrial abuse are prime targets. In one recent case, the WTO
ruled that the U.S. regulations under the Marine Mammal Protection
Act forbidding importation of shrimp caught in a manner that kills
endangered sea turtles is an unfair barrier to trade. The U.S. was
forced to rescind the regulations, thereby turning over its national
autonomy to a global business syndicate.

The Center has joined the Sonoran Justice Alliance, a group of 22
Arizona/Mexico labor, human rights, and environmental organizations
in the following statement against the WTO:

   - We stand united in support of people, who struggle for the basics of a
   dignified human existence: education, a clean environment, a fair wage,
   safe working conditions, health care, and political freedom.
   - We celebrate the power of citizen activism and organized labor to achieve
   these basic dignities.
   - We acknowledge that increasing corporate control of government and
   public institutions often leaves labor and community groups as the last
   defense against exploitation of workers, communities, and natural resources.
   - We are alarmed that through the World Trade Organization (WTO) powerful
   corporations in the new global economy ignore borders, laws, and human
   rights in pursuit of profit, as the masters of capital turn neighbor against
   neighbor in a global "race to the bottom".
   - We believe that we must organize to transcend political, geographic, and
   cultural barriers in order to challenge corporate power and protect our
   communities, no matter what city, country, or continent they inhabit.
   - We therefore declare an alliance between the forces of labor, environment,
   community, and religious, in support of the global struggle against the WTO.

   - We act in order to take responsibility for corporations that are a part of our
   community. We call attention to WTO's destructive policies around the world--
   such as unethically pushing governments to waive and weaken health,
   environmental, and labor laws.
   - We demand justice for workers and the planet. We demand responsibility
   from the corporations represented by WTO that would exploit them.
   - We demand that the new global economy be shaped to put the needs of
   people before profit, and sustainable development before exploitation and
   environmental destruction.
     _________________________

BABBITT DENOUNCES KILLING OF SAN PEDRO RIVER,
INACTION BY LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
In an interview with the Arizona Daily Star, Secretary of Interior Bruce
Babbitt denounced the lack of action by local and state governments
in the face of the drying up of the San Pedro River. Arizona's largest
undammed river, the San Pedro supports the largest riparian forest left
in the Southwest. It is being sucked dry by uncontrolled urban sprawl,
the U.S. Army's Fort Huachuca, the Cananae Mine, and cattle grazing
which has compacted soil throughout the basin. Despite repeated
warnings by scientists and lawsuits by the Center for Biological
Diversity, development dominated public officials have refused to take
any significant action to curb water withdrawals. The water table is
currently dropping 7,000 acre feet/year.

Arizona has ``abdicated its responsibility to lead in the management of
this resource," Babbitt told about 100 scientists, resource managers
and local leaders attending a binational conference on the river. He warned
that if something isn't done soon the federal government will be forced to
step in to save the river. We have to "make certain that we don't repeat the
mistakes of the past and that we do protect this extraordinary piece of
God's creation'' said Babbitt.
_____________________________________________________________

Kierán Suckling                     ksuckling@sw-center.org
Executive Director                  520.623.5252 phone
Center for Biological Diversity     520.623.9797 fax
<http://www.sw-center.org>          pob 710, tucson, az 85702-0710