From: President, Friends of Hanauma Bay
To: Membership, Friends of Hanauma Bay
Aloha all, this is an opportunity to help protect needlessly endangered wildlife. Please see below note from the Conservation Council for Hawai’i (conservehi.org) and also please take the time to read the attached information flyer on the subject of Stopping the Blood Ivory Trade in Hawai’i at link immediately following.
Mahalo,
Lisa Bishop
Go to Article entitled BLOOD IVORY
From: Marjorie Ziegler
Subject: KOKUA ALERT – Testimony needed on elephant and wildlife trafficking bill SB 2647 SD 1
Date: March 16, 2016 at 3:41:24 PM HST
To: marjorie
Aloha, everyone. We are on the home stretch, and this may be one of our last opportunities to speak up on behalf of elephants and other magnificent species of wildlife and get a bill passed this session to ban wildlife trafficking in Hawai‘i. SB 2647 SD 1 will be heard this Friday. Please submit written testimony, testify in person if you can, and send this kokua alert to many others. There is opposition to this bill. See the attached brochure for more information on elephants and ivory in Hawai‘i. Mahalo nui loa!
Hearing Information:
House Committee on Water and Land
Chair Ryan Yamane, Vice Chair Ty Cullen, and Members of the Committee
Friday, March 18, 2016, 10 am
Conference Room 325
Bill: http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2016/Bills/SB2647_SD1_.pdf
Hearing Notice: http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2016/hearingnotices/HEARING_WAL_03-18-16_.HTM
Submit testimony in ONE of the following ways:
Paper: 1 copies (including an original) to Room 316 in the State Capitol;
Fax: For testimony less than 5 pages in length, transmit to 808-586-8494 (Oahu) or 1-800-535-3859 (for Neighbor Islander without a computer to submit testimony through e-mail or the Web); or
Web: For testimony less than 10MB in size, transmit from http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/submittestimony.aspx.
Bill Summary:
SB 2647 SD 1 prohibits selling, offering to sell, purchasing, trading, or bartering for any part of product from the following animals species: elephants, rhinoceroses, tigers, great apes, hippopotamuses, lions, pangolins, cheetahs, jaguars, or leopards.
SB 2647 SD 1 prohibits selling offering to sell, purchasing, trading, or bartering for any part of product from the following marine species: sea turtles, monk seals, narwhals, whales, or walruses in Hawai‘i insofar as the species, subspecies, or distinct population segment is listed on appendix I or II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species; as endangered or critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red; or as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
SB 2647 SD 1 prohibits the sale, offer to sell, purchase, trade, or bartering for any part of product from rays and sharks insofar as the species is listed on appendix 1 of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species; or as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
SB 2647 SD 1 includes cultural and narrow exemptions for certain antiques, guns, knives, and other items.
Reasons to Support SB 2647 SD 1
We need a state law in Hawai‘i because federal laws and regulations do not prohibit the trafficking of elephant ivory, rhinoceros horn, and parts of protected animal species.
An average of 96 elephants are killed EVERY day, mostly for ivory. They will be extinct in the wild in a generation if we do not stop the killing.
Blood ivory funds terrorist activities.
Rhinos will also be extinct in the wild in a generation if we do not stop the killing.
Hawai‘i is the third largest ivory market in the U.S., and possibly soon to become the largest if we do not ban wildlife trafficking.
Wildlife rangers protecting wildlife habitat in Africa are killed in the line of duty.
Elephant ivory is used to make unnecessary items, such as jewelry, trinkets, and netsuke (statues). Other animals are killed needlessly, and SB 2647 will protect all of them.
