Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Revision to the Section 4(d) Rule for the African Elephant

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR <SUBAGY>Fish and Wildlife Service</SUBAGY> <CFR>50 CFR Part 17</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FWS-HQ-IA-2021-0099; FXIA16710900000-234-FF09A30000]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1018-BG66</RIN> <SUBJECT>Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Revision to the Section 4(d) Rule for the African Elephant</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), are revising the rule for the African elephant ( <E T="03">Loxodonta africana</E> ) promulgated under section 4(d) of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA). The purposes are threefold: To increase protection for African elephants in light of the recent rise in international trade of live African elephants by establishing ESA enhancement permit requirements for international trade in live elephants and specific enhancement requirements for the import of wild-sourced elephants, as well as requirements to ensure that all proposed recipients of live African elephants are suitably equipped to house and care for them; to clarify the existing enhancement requirement during our evaluation of an application for a permit to import African elephant sport-hunted trophies; and to incorporate a Party's designation under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) National Legislation Project into the decision-making process for the import of live African elephants, African elephant sport-hunted trophies, and African elephant parts and products other than ivory and sport-hunted trophies. Amendments to the section 4(d) regulations in 2016 prohibited the import and export of African elephant ivory with limited exceptions. This final rule does not affect the regulations pertaining to African elephant ivory. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This rule is effective May 1, 2024. <E T="03">Information Collection Requirements:</E> If you wish to comment on the information collection requirements in this rule, please note that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is required to make a decision concerning the collection of information contained in this rule between 30 and 60 days after the date of publication of this rule in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> . Therefore, comments should be submitted to OMB by May 1, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> This rule and supporting documentation, including the environmental assessment and economic analysis, are available at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> in Docket No. FWS-HQ-IA-2021-0099. <E T="03">Information Collection Requirements:</E> Written comments and suggestions on the information collection requirements should be submitted within 30 days of publication of this document to <E T="03">www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain.</E> Find this particular information collection by selecting “Currently under Review—Open for Public Comments” or by using the search function. Please provide a copy of your comments to the Service Information Collection Clearance Officer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 5275 Leesburg Pike, MS: PRB (JAO/3W), Falls Church, VA 22041-3803 (mail); or <E T="03">Info_Coll@fws.gov</E> (email). Please reference OMB Control Number 1018-0186 in the subject line of your comments. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Mary Cogliano, Manager, Branch of Permits, Division of Management Authority; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; 5275 Leesburg Pike, MS: IA; Falls Church, VA 22041 (telephone (703) 358-2104). Individuals in the United States who are deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay services. Individuals outside the United States should use the relay services offered within their country to make international calls to the point-of-contact in the United States. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Executive Summary</HD> <E T="03">Why We Need To Publish a Final Rule.</E> When a species is listed as threatened, section 4(d) of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (ESA; 16 U.S.C. 1531 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ), gives discretion to the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) to issue regulations that the Secretary deems necessary and advisable to provide for the conservation of such species. Considering the rise in international trade of live elephants, particularly of wild-sourced elephants, and recent CITES developments concerning regulation of trade in live elephants, as well as a need to clarify our enhancement standards and improve the permitting process for import of sport-hunted elephant trophies, we reevaluated the provisions of the regulations that were issued under section 4(d) of the ESA for the African elephant. We find it is appropriate for the United States to adopt requirements under the ESA to ensure that activities with live African elephants under U.S. jurisdiction contribute to enhancing the conservation of the species and that live African elephants are well cared for, so that any domestic demand for live African elephants enhances the conservation of the species and does not contribute to the decline of the species in the wild. In addition, clarifying the enhancement requirement for the import of African elephant sport-hunted trophies and receiving information from the range countries will enable us to ensure that authorized imports contribute to enhancing the conservation of the species and do not contribute to the decline of the species. Clarifying the enhancement standards in the decision-making process for the import of African elephant sport-hunted trophies will increase transparency with stakeholders. To support U.S. African elephant conservation efforts, we will allow certain types of imports only from countries that have achieved a Category One designation under the CITES National Legislation Project, which is accomplished by meeting the basic requirements to implement CITES through the Party's adoption of national laws to implement the treaty. On November 17, 2022, we published a proposed rule to revise the current section 4(d) regulations (87 FR 68975) and opened the public comment period for 60 days, until January 17, 2023. On January 5, 2023, we held a virtual public hearing where we explained the proposed changes and sought public comment. On January 17, 2023, we extended the public comment period for an additional 60 days, to March 20, 2023 (88 FR 2597). We are revising the section 4(d) rule (in part 17 of title 50 of the Code of Federal Regulations at 50 CFR 17.40(e)) by adopting measures that are necessary and advisable for the current conservation needs of the species, based on our evaluation of the current threats to the African elephant. This final section 4(d) rule removes from 50 CFR 17.40(e)(2) the exception from prohibitions for import, export, interstate commerce, and foreign commerce in live African elephants, except when a permit can be issued under 50 CFR part 17. The final rule also establishes the standards used to evaluate “enhancement” under the ESA for the import of wild-sourced live African elephants under a new 50 CFR 17.40(e)(10). This provision establishes an annual certification requirement for range countries that allow for export of live African elephants destined for the United States to provide the Service with information about the management and status of African elephants in their country. This final rule also clarifies our evaluation of the existing enhancement requirement regarding applications for the import of sport-hunted trophies by adding a new provision to 50 CFR 17.40(e)(6). This provision establishes an annual certification requirement for range countries that allow for export of sport-hunted trophies destined for the United States to provide the Service with information about the management and status of African elephants and the hunting programs in their country. This provision does not change the enhancement requirement for the import of sport-hunted trophies under the previous section 4(d) rule but clarifies how that requirement can be met. This final rule also includes incorporating the CITES National Legislation Project category designations (see 50 CFR 23.7 and <E T="03">https://www.cites.org</E> ) into the acceptance of imports under 50 CFR 17.40(e)(2), (e)(6), and (e)(10) under a new 50 CFR 17.40(e)(11). <HD SOURCE="HD2">Need for Regulatory Action</HD> We have reevaluated the provisions of the current section 4(d) rule and considered other administrative actions in light of the rise in international trade of live African elephants. In addition, we have received a rulemaking petition under the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 553(e)) specifically relating to the import of African elephant sport-hunted trophies. The petition is a request to initiate an expedited rulemaking to reinstate negative enhancement findings for African elephant sport-hunted trophies taken in Zimbabwe (Friends of Animals (FOA), received May 17, 2021). We are responding to the petition and information provided with it through the revisions in this document to the section 4(d) rule for the African elephant. In the petition described above, FOA requests the Service to: (1) repeal or amend the memorandum dated March 1, 2018, in which the Service withdrew certain findings for ESA-listed species taken as sport-hunted trophies; (2) reinstate the Enhancement Finding for African elephants Taken as Sport-hunted Trophies in Zimbabwe On or After January 1, 2015 (Mar. 26, 2015); and (3) enact an immediate moratorium on the importation of African elephant sport-hunted trophies from Zimbabwe. Additional information can be ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 249k characters. 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