Chapter IV — International 



Assessment Program Working Groups are both 

 charged by the council to examine climate change and 

 ultraviolet radiation and their impacts, and plans are 

 under way to establish a mechanism for cooperation 

 on these topics. 



The Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna 

 Working Group also will need to consider its relation- 

 ship with the sustainable development program, and in 

 particular to avoid consideration of economic and 

 other policy-related issues that should be taken up by 

 the senior Arctic officials or the Arctic Council itself. 

 As the Commission noted in its previous report, 

 differences of opinion among the eight Arctic nations 

 on whether and how the Conservation of Arctic Flora 

 and Fauna Working Group should address such topics 

 related to sustainable development led to disagree- 

 ments concerning the working group's responsibilities, 

 if any, with regard to sustainable development. 



Coordinating U.S. Involvement 

 in Arctic Activities 



In the United States, the Department of State has 

 lead responsibility for developing and overseeing 

 implementation of U.S. policy regarding the Arctic. 

 To help meet this responsibility, the positions of the 

 United States regarding policy-related matters to be 

 considered at working group, senior official, and 

 ministerial meetings are developed through a federal 

 interagency Arctic Policy Group chaired by the 

 Department of State. This group includes representa- 

 tives of the Marine Mammal Commission, the Arctic 

 Research Commission, the Environmental Protection 

 Agency, the National Science Foundation, and the 

 Departments of Commerce, Defense, Energy, the 

 Interior, and Transportation. Representatives of the 

 state of Alaska, Alaska Native organizations, industry, 

 and public interest groups are consulted to help 

 develop policies regarding issues that affect them. 



As noted in the Commission's previous report, the 

 Department of State undertook in 1997 to develop a 

 statement of U.S. goals for the Arctic Council. This 

 was initiated following a recommendation made by the 

 Commission in a letter dated 3 June 1997. In 1998 

 the Department of State circulated a draft goals 

 statement to solicit comments from federal agencies 



and others. These comments were incorporated into 

 a final draft agreed to by the agencies and is being 

 used by the State Department as a working document. 



Domestic coordination on Arctic Council matters 

 appears to be improving through more focused discus- 

 sions in the Arctic Policy Group and through addition- 

 al meetings between the U.S. senior Arctic official 

 and the U.S. lead representatives to each working 

 group. To this end, the Department of State's Under- 

 secretary for Global Affairs convened a high-level 

 interagency meeting on 5 November 1998, in which 

 Commission representatives took part, to discuss U.S. 

 responsibilities and agency commitments for hosting 

 the Arctic Council through 2000. It appears that 

 agency interest in contributing to the work of the 

 council has increased, in large part because of the in- 

 creased visibility achieved by United States' hosting 

 the council. 



The Commission will continue to take part in 

 domestic discussions of Arctic Council issues, to send 

 representatives to appropriate meetings, and to make 

 recommendations as appropriate concerning the 

 organization and content of work by the Arctic 

 Council and its subsidiary bodies. 



Convention on International Trade 



in Endangered Species 



of Wild Fauna and Flora 



The Convention on International Trade in Endan- 

 gered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) 

 provides an international framework for regulating 

 trade in animals and plants that are or may become 

 threatened with extinction. The Convention entered 

 into force in 1975 and at the beginning of 1998 had 

 been signed by 143 parties. During 1998 Mauritania 

 became a signatory, and Azerbaijan acceded to the 

 Convention on 23 November 1998 with an effective 

 date of 21 February 1999. This will bring the number 

 of CITES members to 145. Within the United States, 

 the Fish and Wildlife Service is the lead agency for 

 federal actions under the Convention. 



The Convention provides for three levels of trade 

 control. Depending on the extent to which a species 



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