[CPEO-MEF] Habitat for 99 Hawaiian Plants Marred by Disclaimer

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Hawai'i
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
Habitat for 99 Hawaiian Plants Marred by Disclaimer

HONOLULU, Hawaii, June 18, 2003 (ENS) - The final critical habitat
designation for 99 endangered and threatened plants native to the
Hawaiian island of Oahu was announced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service Tuesday. But a disclaimer, attached to a critical habitat
designation for the first time, seeks to undermine all critical habitat
designations.
Once designated, critical habitat protects habitat that is essential to
a species' survival and recovery from being destroyed or adversely
modified by actions that federal agencies carry out, fund or approve.

Fifty-five of the plant species receiving critical habitat protection
are found only on Oahu. At least half of those species have fewer than
100 individual plants remaining in the wild.

Many of the Oahu plants were added to the federal Endangered Species
List more than a decade ago, but it has taken a long legal struggle
undertaken by conservation and native Hawaiian groups to protect habitat
for the island's most unique and fragile plant species.

Conservationists are concerned about the Fish and Wildlife Service's
decision to exclude from the final designation nearly one-third of the
habitat - 26,946 acres of the 81,987 acre total - identified as
essential to the recovery of Oahu's imperiled plants. The excluded
habitat is all on Army installations.

This article can be viewed at:
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2003/2003-06-18-09.asp#anchor2

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