STATEMENTS ON COMBATING WILDLIFE TRAFFICKING STRATEGY

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Statements of Associate Attorney General Tony West and Acting Assistant Attorney General of Enrd on the National Strategy for Combatting Wildlife Trafficking

Today, the White House released the National Strategy for Combatting Wildlife Trafficking.  The Department of Justice, along with the Departments of State and the Interior, are co-chairs of the U.S. Task Force established by President Obama to lead the implementation of this strategy.  On Thursday, Associate Attorney General Tony West will lead the U.S. Delegation’s participation at the London Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade.

"The Department is pleased to be a part of this interagency approach to combating illegal wildlife trafficking,” said Associate Attorney General West.  “Record high demand for wildlife products, coupled with inadequate preventative measures and weak institutions, has resulted in an explosion of illicit trade in wildlife in recent years, with the increasing involvement of organized transnational criminal syndicates.  This trade undermines security, fuels corruption and contributes to the spread of disease, and it is decimating iconic animal populations.  The National Strategy identifies priority areas for interagency coordination, with the objectives of harnessing and strategically applying the full breadth of U.S. government resources.  Combating this problem will also require the shared understanding, commitment, and efforts of the world’s governments, intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, corporations, civil society and individuals.   At this week’s London Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade, we hope other countries will join us in taking ambitious action to combat wildlife trafficking.”
The Department of Justice has long worked to protect threatened and endangered wildlife species through its enforcement of the Lacey Act and Endangered Species Act, as well as related criminal statutes.

“The president has called upon DOJ and more than a dozen other federal agencies to combine forces to more effectively battle this pernicious trade, which is growing at an alarming rate and threatens the survival of protected species both at home and abroad,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Robert Dreher for the Environment and Natural Resources Division.  “The release of today’s National Strategy to Combat Wildlife Trafficking is a welcome next step in our longstanding efforts to protect threatened and endangered wildlife species.  Strong enforcement is critical to stopping those who kill and traffic in these animals, whether on land or in the oceans.  At the same time, the Strategy recognizes that enforcement alone is not enough to stop traffickers.  We must also work to reduce demand for illegal wildlife products.  This is not a fight that the United States can win alone; under the Strategy, we will build relationships with local and global partners who share our commitment to ending wildlife trafficking.”

The Environmental Crimes Section of the Environment and Natural Resources Division and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices around the country bring criminal prosecutions under these laws against, for example, people who are found smuggling wildlife and plants into the United States. There is a major worldwide black market for some endangered species or products made from them.  The main federal agencies that the Division represents in this area are the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

U.S. CRACKS DOWN ON ILLEGAL TRADE IN SEA TURTLES IN PUERTO RICO

FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE 
Friday, July 19, 2013
Eight Arrested in Puerto Rico on Charges of Illegal Trade in Endangered Sea Turtles for Human Consumption
Federal Agencies Announce Formation of Puerto Rico Environmental Crimes Task Force

Federal authorities arrested eight people in the cities of Arroyo and Patillas, Puerto Rico, yesterday on felony and misdemeanor charges for the illegal take, possession and sale of endangered sea turtles and their parts for human consumption as well as aiding and abetting violations of the Endangered Species and Lacey Act, announced Robert G. Dreher, the Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez, U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico.

Roberto Guzman Herpin, 34, Madelyne Montes Santiago, 37, Edwin Alamo Silva, 50, Juan Soto Rodriguez, 45, Ricardo Dejesus Alamo, 33, Jose Javier Rodriguez Sanchez, 40, Iris Lebron Montanez, 53, and Miguel Rivera Delgado, 55, all residents of Patillas and Arroyo, were arrested Thursday and made their appearances in federal court.

The takedown was led by special agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), with assistance from the recently formed Puerto Rico Environmental Crimes Task Force, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Puerto Rico Police Department and the Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources.  Participating agencies of the task force currently include prosecutors from the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Puerto Rico, FWS, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division (EPA-CID), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement- Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the FBI.

In 2011, the FWS initiated an undercover operation to investigate the illegal trade in sea turtles for human consumption. During this investigation, it was determined that these illegal sales of sea turtle meat, confirmed through DNA analysis conducted by the FWS Forensic Lab, have resulted in the illegal take of 15 individual endangered hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricate) and 7 endangered green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas).

 “Hawksbill and green sea turtles are protected by Puerto Rican law, nationally under the Endangered Species Act as well as internationally under CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna),” said U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Resident Agent in Charge David Pharo. “The protection from the illegal take and sale of this and of other marine life organisms is a priority of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and is instrumental to the health of marine ecosystems for where they exist. These charges stem from a collaborative effort amongst law enforcement agencies to achieve a common goal of protecting our nation’s sensitive marine environments. It demonstrates our commitment to pursue those who violate fish & wildlife laws for the purpose of personal and or commercial gain as well as those that drive the illegal trade of marine life nationally and internationally.”

The cases are being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Carmen Márquez.  If convicted, the defendants face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.  Indictments contain only charges and are not evidence of guilt.  Defendants are presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty.

The waters around Puerto Rico are designated as a critical habitat for the hawksbill and the green sea turtle.  The most significant nesting for the hawksbill within the U.S. occurs in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  Each year, about 500-1000 hawksbill nests are laid on Mona Island, Puerto Rico.  The green sea turtle population has declined by 48-65 percent over the past century.  Puerto Rico is also home to nesting sites for the endangered leatherback sea turtle, the largest species of turtle in the world.   The leatherback sea turtle suffered a severe population crash due to human harvesting of its meat and eggs, and the destruction of its nesting habitat by beachfront development.

The Puerto Rico Environmental Crimes Task Force

Also today, representatives of federal criminal investigative agencies, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division announced the creation of a Puerto Rico Environmental Crimes Task Force to investigate and prosecute environmental crimes on the island.

The commonwealth of Puerto Rico contains six national wildlife refuges (Cabo Rojo, Culebra, Desecheo, Laguna Cartagena, Navassa Island, Vieques) and is home to 25 endangered and threatened animal species, 21 of which are found nowhere else on earth. For instance, there are only 200 Puerto Rican parrots (Amazona vittata) remaining, with less than 50 left in the wild, making it one of the 10 rarest birds on Earth.  The island is also home to 49 endangered and threatened plant species. There are 37 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and Superfund cleanup sites on Puerto Rico.

Through the new task force, federal investigative agencies will coordinate their efforts to investigate and prosecute those responsible for committing serious environmental crimes. Federal laws have been enacted to protect the environment, but their enforcement requires the coordinated efforts and involvement of multiple federal law enforcement agencies with the assistance local law enforcement and the citizenry.  The task force has three specific goals:

• Improve investigative coordination among the federal authorities who are responsible for protecting public health and the environment.

• Coordinate the available federal resources and improve the dissemination of information between the federal law enforcement agencies to better protect human health and the environment.

• Improve environmental awareness of the community to recognize violations of federal environmental laws and regulations.

“Through the effective and efficient coordination of federal agencies who will jointly investigate and prosecute environmental crimes on the island, the task force will help preserve the island’s abundant natural resources and wildlife, including endangered sea turtles,” said Robert G. Dreher, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.  “It is our hope and vision that these efforts will raise greater awareness about environmental crime, bring those who knowingly harm the environment to justice, and help preserve the island’s environment for generations to come.”

“With the creation of this Task Force we aim to protect the environment and the public’s health from exposure to environmental hazards, said Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez United States Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico.  “We will vigorously investigate and prosecute those who do not comply with the environmental laws of the United States.”

“Puerto Rico’s high asthma rates and its incredible natural resources make pollution prevention together with the rigorous enforcement of environmental laws critical to the people of Puerto Rico,” said EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck. “By pooling EPA resources and those of other agencies, the EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division and EPA’s Caribbean Environmental Protection Division can maximize the ability to ensure that those who willfully violate environmental laws are held accountable.”

“The task force will strengthen already existing enforcement partnerships that help protect Puerto Rico’s wildlife and rich wildlife heritage,” said Special Agent in Charge Luis Santiago, who oversees U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement operations in southeastern states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“This enforcement task force will be a great help for us in our mission to conserve, protect, and manage living marine resources in the commonwealth,” said Otha Easley, Acting Special Agent in Charge of NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement Southeast Division, which covers eight southern states and all U.S. Caribbean territories. “Puerto Rico has a rich and diverse ecosystem, and this partnership is a significant step forward in its protection.”

WYOMING GRAY WOLF NO LONGER PROTECTED UNDER ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT

Photo: Wyoming Gray Wolf. Credit: Tracy Brooks, U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service.

FROM: U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE

Service Declares Wyoming Gray Wolf Recovered Under the Endangered Species Act and Returns Management Authority to the State
August 31, 2012

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that the Wyoming population of gray wolves is recovered and no longer warrants protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Beginning September 30th, wolves in Wyoming will be managed by the state under an approved management plan, as they are in the states of Idaho and Montana.

"The return of the wolf to the Northern Rocky Mountains is a major success story, and reflects the remarkable work of States, Tribes, and our many partners to bring this iconic species back from the brink of extinction," said Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe. "The wolf population has remained healthy under state management in Idaho and Montana, and we’re confident that the Wyoming population will sustain its recovery under the management plan Wyoming will implement."

The most recent official minimum population estimate shows that the Northern Rocky Mountain wolf population contains more than 1,774 adult wolves and more than 109 breeding pairs. Most of the suitable habitat across the Northern Rocky Mountain region is now occupied and likely at, or above, long-term carrying capacity. This population has exceeded recovery goals for 10 consecutive years.

The Service will continue to monitor the delisted wolf populations in all three states for a minimum of five years to ensure that they continue to sustain their recovery, and retains authority to reinstate ESA protections at any time if circumstances warrant.

"Our primary goal, and that of the states, is to ensure that gray wolf populations in the Northern Rocky Mountains remain healthy, giving future generations of Americans the chance to hear its howl echo across the area," added Ashe. "No one, least of all Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, wants to see wolves back on the endangered species list. But that’s what will happen if recovery targets are not sustained."

Wyoming has committed to meeting its statutory and regulatory standards by managing for a buffer above minimum management targets. The management framework adopted by the State is designed to maintain at least 150 wolves and 15 breeding pairs within the State of Wyoming. This is the same management objective as was adopted by the States of Montana and Idaho. The Service expects the Greater Yellowstone Area wolf population to maintain a long-term average of around 300 wolves, while the entire Northern Rocky Mountains Distinct Population Segment is expected to achieve a long-term average of around 1,000 wolves. These wolves represent a 400-mile southern range extension of a vast contiguous wolf population that numbers over 12,000 wolves in western Canada and about 65,000 wolves across all of Canada and Alaska.

In 2009, the Service published a final rule to remove ESA protections for gray wolves across the Northern Rocky Mountain distinct population segment, with the exception of those in Wyoming. Wyoming was not included because the state’s management plan did not provide the necessary regulatory mechanisms to assure that gray wolf populations would be conserved if the protections of the ESA were removed. Subsequently, the Service and the State of Wyoming developed points of agreement that would promote management of a stable, sustainable population of wolves and allow management authority to be turned over to the state. Wyoming subsequently developed a wolf management plan and amended its state law and regulations to codify those protections.

With publication of this final rule, the northern Rocky Mountain population of gray wolves that includes all of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, the eastern third of Washington and Oregon, and a small corner of north-central Utah will be managed by state and tribal jurisdictions. Today’s decision will take effect September 30th.

Biologists have determined that the vast majority of Wyoming’s wolf population and habitat is located in northwest Wyoming, where wolves will be managed as "trophy game" animals year-round. Trophy game status allows the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to regulate timing, methods, and numbers of wolves taken through regulated hunting and other methods such as control of wolves found to be depredating on livestock.

Existing Federal law prohibits hunting in Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. No wolf hunting will occur in the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway, the National Elk Refuge, and the Wind River Reservation in 2012, although hunting could occur in these three areas in future years. Beginning October 1, the State of Wyoming has authorized a harvest of 52 wolves in other portions of northwestern Wyoming’s Trophy Area in 2012. Current information indicates only about ten percent of the Greater Yellowstone Area wolf population resides outside the Trophy Game Area in Wyoming, where they have been designated as predators and can be taken with very few restrictions.



 

LOUISIANA RESIDENT GETS FINE AND TIME ON FIRST EVER ALLIGATOR POACHING PRISON SENTENCE

Photo Credit:  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Wikimedia
FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Friday, June 22, 2012
Louisiana Hunting Outfitter Sentenced to Prison for First Felony Conviction for Illegally Hunting Protected Alligators

WASHINGTON – Gregory K. Dupont, 38, of Plaquemine, La., was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Baton Rouge, La., to serve six months in prison, to be followed by four months in a half-way house and two years of supervised release.  Dupont was also ordered to pay a $3,000 fine.  Dupont’s sentencing, handed down by U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson late Thursday, was the first ever felony conviction and prison sentence resulting from the illegal hunting of American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis), in violation of the Lacey Act, the Endangered Species Act, and Louisiana law.

Dupont has owned and operated Louisiana Hunters Inc., a hunting outfitting company, since 2001.  His clients hired him to take them on alligator hunts in Louisiana, and they included out-of-state residents who were required to hunt with a licensed resident alligator hunter.  Dupont took some of the out-of-state clients to hunt alligators on property where he was not authorized to hunt.  On Feb.10, 2012, Dupont pleaded guilty to selling American alligators by providing outfitting and guiding services, knowing the alligators to have been taken illegally, on a hunt in September 2006.

In 1967, American alligators were listed as an endangered species because the total population size in the United States reached drastically low numbers due to severe poaching and overharvesting.  The conservation effect of this protected status and of the Lacey Act, the Endangered Species Act, and regulations promulgated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state of Louisiana led to the recovery of the size of the American alligator population in the United States, and American alligators were down-listed to threatened status in 1987.  The success of the American alligator conservation program is second only to that of the Bald Eagle.

Because American alligators remain federally protected, alligator hunting is regulated by federal and state rules and regulations, which require, among other things, the tagging of all harvested alligators.  The integrity of the tagging system is crucial to Louisiana’s alligator management program because it enables the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to monitor harvest areas, alligator size and the number of alligators taken.  This system depends in significant part upon the honesty and self-regulation of Louisiana’s licensed hunters for its continued success.

In Louisiana, an allotted number of alligator hide tags are issued to licensed hunters.  Each tag may be used for one alligator only, and Louisiana law requires alligator hunters to hunt only on property for which hide tags are issued.  The areas where alligator hunting is permitted are determined on a yearly basis by wildlife biologists, whose decisions are based on the need to maintain a healthy alligator population.  If hunters poach alligators from areas for which they do not have tags, then the integrity of the entire alligator management system is undermined, thereby threatening Louisiana’s alligator population and alligator industry, which is a significant component of Louisiana’s economy.

According to court documents, Dupont, in violation of law, guided his clients to places in Louisiana, regardless of whether he had tags for the areas, where he hoped his clients would kill trophy-sized alligators so that they would pay him a trophy fee in addition to the guiding fees.

The case was prosecuted by Shennie Patel and Susan L. Park of the Environmental Crimes Section of the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice, with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Louisiana.  The case was investigated by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Law Enforcement Division and by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement.