44TH LEGISLATURE - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - FIRST SESSION, 1999

OPPOSING THE BIOSPHERE RESERVES DESIGNATION OF THE MAN AND THE BIOSPHERE PROGRAM AND URGING THAT THE PROPOSED BIODIVERSITY TREATY NOT BE RATIFIED BY THE UNITED STATES.

WHEREAS, the united nations has promoted a biosphere program throughout the world; and

WHEREAS, the biosphere program threatens to place millions of acres of land under the control of the united nations via agreements or executive orders; and

WHEREAS, the united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization has created a worldwide system of three hundred twenty-eight biosphere reserves in eighty-two nations; and

WHEREAS, forty-seven united nations-designated biosphere reserves are within the sovereign borders of the United States and one united nations-designated biosphere reserve is within the state of New Mexico; and

WHEREAS, neither the legislature of the state of New Mexico nor the congress of the United States has considered, debated or approved such designations; and

WHEREAS, such designations require strict land use management procedures as are set forth in the 1994 strategic plan for the United States man and the biosphere program, as published by the United States state department, and further described in the global biodiversity assessment, published by the united nations environment program expressly for the conferences of the parties to the convention on biological diversity; and

WHEREAS, biosphere reserves are, by definition, designed to continually expand each of the three zones: the core protected zone, the buffer zone and the zone of cooperation; and

WHEREAS, biosphere reserves are expected to be the nucleus of the system of protected areas required by Article 8 of the convention on biological diversity as expressed in the minutes of the first meeting of the conference of the parties to the convention on biological diversity; and

WHEREAS, no landowner within reach or potential reach of the biosphere reserves has input or recourse to land use management policies of the united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization or the conference of the parties to the convention on biological diversity; and

WHEREAS, even though the convention on biological diversity has not been ratified by the United States senate, the very presence of the united nations biosphere reserves on American soil demonstrates the compliance with an international treaty that has not been ratified; and

WHEREAS, the use of land in biosphere areas for ordinary commercial or agricultural purposes may be severely restricted or eliminated; and

WHEREAS, Jornada has already been designated as a biosphere reserve; and

WHEREAS, none of the current area included within the biosphere program in New Mexico has been included at the request of or with the consent of the state legislature of the state of New Mexico; and

WHEREAS, the state legislature does not believe that a request from the national park service or a tourist and convention service should be adequate to subject land in New Mexico to the control of the united nations or any other foreign parties; and

WHEREAS, the area encompassed by this reserve includes not only public, but private lands; and

WHEREAS, the placing of environmental or other restrictions upon the use of private land has been held by a number of recent United States supreme court decisions to constitute a taking of the land for public purposes; and

WHEREAS, the proposed biodiversity treaty, if ratified by the United States, would ultimately lead to the reality that New Mexicans could not use their private and public lands in the manner to which they have been accustomed; and

WHEREAS, the restrictions contemplated together with outside control of the land encompassed by a biosphere reserve constitute an unlawful taking of that land in violation of the constitution of the United States, to wit:

Article 4, Section 3, Clause 2: "...nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.";

Article 4, Section 4: "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this union a Republican Form of Government..."; and

Amendment 5 of the constitution of the United States: "...nor [shall any person] be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."; and

WHEREAS, the virtual ceding of these lands to the united nations leaves the residents who own land, local governments and the state of New Mexico without any legitimate forum for redress of grievances or for input into any decision-making process relating to the biosphere reserve; and

WHEREAS, under Article 6 of the constitution of the United States, this treaty would be given equal footing with the constitution of the United States, thus effectively precluding any legal means of redress; and

WHEREAS, the legislature of the state of New Mexico does not wish to have portions of its land area controlled by foreign powers over which it has no control and that are not subject to its laws:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the legislature of the state of New Mexico be unalterably opposed to the inclusion of any land within the border of the state of New Mexico within the purview of the biodiversity treaty or any biodiversity program without the express consent of the legislature of the state of New Mexico, as provided by the constitution of the United States and the constitution of New Mexico; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the legislature urge members of the congress of the United States and especially the New Mexico delegation to the congress of the United States, to oppose ratification of this treaty and the inclusion of any land within the state of New Mexico in any biosphere program of the united nations; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the Honorable Bill Clinton, president of the United States, the Honorable Madeline K. Albright, secretary of state, and the New Mexico congressional delegation.