Council Resolution 99-04
Banff, 28 June 1999
The Upper San Pedro River Initiative
THE COUNCIL:
RECALLING Council Resolution 96-02, which recognizes the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area (Arizona, United States of America) as a site important to the conservation of North American birds, and which encourages the Parties to the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (the “Agreement”) to consider it as a pilot site for the development of cooperative efforts to conserve areas critical to the conservation of birds in North America;
PURSUANT to the Secretariat’s notification to the Council, dated 27 May 1997, regarding the preparation of a report to the Council on potential actions to protect and enhance bird habitat along the upper San Pedro River under Article 13 of the Agreement;
COMMENDING the Upper San Pedro Expert Team for preparing a science-based evaluation of the state and sustainability of the riparian habitat along the upper San Pedro River, and the Upper San Pedro Advisory Panel for developing and proposing pragmatic recommendations aimed at preserving the riparian habitat along the upper San Pedro River;
ACKNOWLEDGING the extraordinary ecological significance of the binational San Pedro River basin, including its role as an important corridor for migratory birds, and emphasizing the value placed on this resource by local, national and international communities;
CONCERNED that the upper San Pedro River is threatened by unsustainable water-use patterns;
RECOGNIZING the need and importance for cross-border cooperation to protect and conserve valued transboundary ecological resources;
MINDFUL of the need to respect local, tribal, state and national jurisdictions and the unique cultural, economic and social characteristics of the upper San Pedro River basin;
CONVINCED that locally-based solutions are essential and that participatory and straightforward processes must be designed to ensure that locally-based solutions are proposed and adopted;
RECOGNIZING the decisions reached by Mexico´s Secretariat of Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries (Semarnap) and the US Department of the Interior (DOI) at the Binational Commission meeting in Mexico City on 4 June 1999, and the joint declaration signed by the same departments on 22 June 1999, establishing a binational work program on the upper San Pedro River basin-Los Ajos as well as the growing number of promising state, tribal, local and private conservation initiatives underway in the watershed.
HEREBY AGREES TO:
RELEASE to the public the report, Ribbon of Life, An Agenda for Preserving Transboundary Migratory Bird Habitat on the Upper San Pedro River, prepared under Article 13 of the Agreement;
EXAMINE the Article 13 report findings and identify possible roles for the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, including identification of possible funding mechanisms, in any potential implementation of the report’s recommendations, consistent with the trilateral mandate of the Agreement and in coordination with ongoing bilateral efforts.
APPROVED BY THE COUNCIL:
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Carol M. Browner
Government of the United States of America
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Julia Carabias Lillo
Government of the United Mexican States
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Christine Stewart
Government of Canada
The Upper San Pedro River Initiative