Regarding the Convention on Biological Diversity of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development

WHEREAS, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, involving over 118 nations, convened in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 3-14, 1992; and

WHEREAS, among the initiatives of the Conference was the Convention on Biological Diversity which, in order to curb global extinction of plant and animal species, would restrict governments of the world from allowing destruction of natural habitat, essentially globalizing the process of conducting environmental impact studies for major projects everywhere; and

WHEREAS, the Executive Branch of the Government of the United States of America, by its refusal to become a party to the Convention on Biological Diversity, has seriously undermined the ability and resolve of world governments to manage their environmental resources in a sustainable way; and

WHEREAS, the refusal of the Bush Administration to endorse the Convention of Biological Diversity ignores the overwhelming evidence provided by ecologists, zoologists, botanists, and other students of biological diversity; and

WHEREAS, the Bush Administration's refusal to endorse the Convention on Biological Diversity places most American life scientists in an embarrassing and compromising position vis-a-vis their colleagues in other countries and effectively undermines leadership efforts by these scientists; now

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that The American Society of Mammalogists, in session at its seventy-second annual meeting, June 14-18, 1992, at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, deplores the action of the Bush Administration in refusing to support the Convention on Biological Diversity and in acting negatively with respect to the efforts of other nations of the world to formulate a united approach to world environmental and conservation problems; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The American Society of Mammalogists supports and endorses the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted by a vast majority of nations in attendance at the Rio de Janeiro conference; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that The American Society of Mammalogists encourages the Bush Administration and all components of the United States government to take positive action to understand and maintain biological diversity and to join the international community in cooperative efforts to save global biological diversity.