All great ideas and thank you guys for all being so proactive. I now call on all stake holders in Africa to do the same and collate information to support these programs.

quote:

Originally posted by jeff32:SCI have recently (within the last few months) has published an economic study.

Thank you. I am not sure how I missed this.

http://safariclubfoundation.or...iates-2015_FINAL.pdf

Based on the language in the USFWS finding, it seems they are asking for all information relevant to a potential classification under the Act. Is anyone on our side working to provide scientific data to refute the information in the petition?

Based on some research on USFWS' site, I have a follow-on question to what I posted last night, to anyone who is more educated on this than I am. If I understand the process correctly, USFWS has 90 days to respond to a properly filed petition to change status of a species to determine whether the petition has merit. If they issue a positive finding, they then have 12 months to make a determination. They issued a positive 90-day finding on leopard in November. So, my question is, when should we expect a determination on leopard, and if it is decided to classify as endangered, how long before it is effective?

I ask this 1) because I have a leopard hunt booked for Zim in May of 2017 and 2) I tracked the timeline for lion, which seems not to have followed the above:

African Lion

petition filed by HSUS, et. al. 3/1/11
90-day finding 11/22/12
proposed rule 10/29/14
final rule 12/23/15
effective date 1/22/16

IIRC, lions were allowed to be imported if hunted prior to the effective date. This was a big topic at DSC last year as last minute hunts were booked.

Anyone have any insight on the above or my earlier question about who might be providing information to USFWS to refute the data in the leopard petition?

Last follow-on question:

USFWS indicates that they are requesting all information relevant to listing leopard as endangered by 1/30/17. So, Is DSC, SCI, Conservation Force or anyone else working on this?

https://www.federalregister.go...ngs-for-five-species



Correction to our Evaluation of a Petition To Reclassify the Leopard as an Endangered Species Throughout Its Range


On November 30, 2016, we published a document in the Federal Register (81 FR 86315) announcing 90-day findings on three petitions to list or reclassify wildlife or plants under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act; 16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). That document included a finding on a petition to reclassify leopard (Panthera pardus) as an endangered species throughout its range. However, in the discussion of our finding and supporting documentation, we made two errors. Therefore, with this document, we correct those errors, clarify our intent to evaluate the status of the species throughout its range. The public is welcome to submit information on the species in light of these corrections (see ADDRESSES, above). If you sent information previously, you need not resend it.

The first error we made in the November 30, 2016, 90-day finding is that we mistakenly titled the action “Evaluation of a Petition To Reclassify Leopards Currently Listed as Threatened Species to Endangered Species Under the Act,” inadvertently implying that we will evaluate the status of the species only in the countries in which it is currently listed as threatened. However, the petition requests that we reclassify leopards as endangered throughout the species' current range, and we evaluated the petition based on that request. Our finding on the petition—that the petition contains substantial information that listing the leopard as endangered throughout its range may be warranted—has not changed. Therefore, we clarify that we will evaluate the status of leopards throughout their current range in our assessment of the species' status.

The second error we made in the November 30, 2016, 90-day finding is that we mistakenly described the current range of the leopard as: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Kenya, and Uganda. However, the correct current range of the species is as follows:

Species and Range
Leopard (Panthera pardus): 62 countries in Africa and Asia.

The corrected information regarding our review of this petition can be found as an appendix at http://www.regulations.gov under Docket No. FWS-HQ-ES-2016-0131 in the Supporting Documents section.

Jesus, those people are dense
There is more leopards that you shake the stick at
OK, let’s classify mountain lions as endangered because they are not in Illinois and Iowa or whatever...

USF&W the new world power that overrules CITES?

It may dictate (rightly or wrongly) the laws regarding the flora and fauna within its jurisdiction - Africa however is a distant continent that is not under the American flag.