Bill Text: HI HR157 | 2014 | Regular Session | Introduced

Hawaii House Resolution 157 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: Enforcement of Federal Prohibition of Ivory Sales

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 10-0)

Status: (Passed) 2014-04-03 - Resolution adopted in final form. [HR157 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2014-HR157-Introduced.html

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.R. NO.	157
TWENTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE, 2014
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE RESOLUTION

Urging the federal government to enhance its enforcement of federal laws prohibiting the sale of ivory.

WHEREAS, African elephants are nearing extinction due to the high price of ivory driven by consumer demand; and

WHEREAS, tens of thousands of African elephants are being slaughtered by poachers intent on selling their ivory, and ivory trafficking is at its highest recorded rate ever; and

WHEREAS, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, attended by one hundred seventy-eight nations in March 2013, noted that elephant slaughter has reached crisis proportions unheard of in two decades; and

WHEREAS, scientists believe the population of African elephants cannot withstand this rate of slaughter; and

WHEREAS, the black market trade of ivory through internet sales is skyrocketing throughout the world; and

WHEREAS, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, adopted by the United States, banned the international trade of African elephant ivory in 1990; and

WHEREAS, federal laws prohibit the sale of certain classes of ivory; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-seventh Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2014, that the federal government is urged to enhance its enforcement of federal laws prohibiting the sale of ivory; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, and the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation.