By The Center for Biological Diversity
Contact:
Sarah Uhlemann, (206) 327-2344, suhlemann@biologicaldiversity.org |
Broad Range of International Conservation Projects Hit By Halt in U.S. Support
WASHINGTON— The Center for Biological Diversity sent notice today of its intent to sue the Trump administration for abruptly cutting off funding to fight poaching and other international efforts to protect some of world’s most beloved wildlife.
Administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the funds support projects like anti-poaching patrols for rhinos, scientific research on elephant declines, and fighting trafficking in imperiled turtles in countries that lack the resources to protect species that the American people — through the highly popular U.S. Endangered Species Act — are dedicated to stopping from going extinct.
“The Trump administration’s funding freeze for anti-poaching patrols and other international conservation work is maddening, heartbreaking, and very illegal,” said Sarah Uhlemann, international program director at the Center. “These Fish and Wildlife Service funds help protect elephants, rhinos and other animals across the globe that Americans love. No one voted to sacrifice the world’s most iconic wildlife to satisfy some unelected billionaire’s reckless power trip.”
The Service has reportedly halted tens of millions of dollars of foreign conservation funding and ordered grant recipients to stop work under their contracts. The abrupt stop to funding left numerous nonprofit organizations around the globe in disarray, unsure how to continue critical conservation work and forced to lay off staff.
Today’s legal notice points out that the Service’s funding freeze violates the Endangered Species Act because the agency did not consider how it would harm threatened species the projects support. The freeze also violates Constitutional separation of powers and longstanding laws requiring rational agency decision-making.
Several courts have already held the Trump administration’s similar freeze on USAID funding to be illegal and have ordered the administration to reinitiate payments. When the Trump administration did not resume funding, one court set an order for compliance last week. The Supreme Court paused that deadline and is now considering the issue.
“This insanity has to stop or some of the world’s most endangered animals will die,” said Uhlemann. “Trump and his unelected cronies are gleefully tearing apart the federal government without care for whom or what it harms. It’s careless, callous, and a violation of the laws that protect us all.”
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
