Whereas a public database of endangered species would;
- Promote awareness regarding endangered organisms whose endangerment would otherwise be overlooked, in turn encouraging conservation action;
- Help member states tailor their conservation efforts to be more efficient, as knowledge of endangered organisms would be more available; and
- Aid further research regarding endangered organisms, in turn further facilitating conservation thereof;
And whereas past World Assembly law tasks the WAESC with creating a variety of documentation and assessments regarding species and subspecies and endangerment thereof, but does not mandate that these assessments or lists be public or include other information relevant to conservation but not necessarily threats to survival, nor does it fully prevent or ban member states from purposefully concealing evidence of species endangerment or the extent thereof;
And whereas a separate resolution to do so and complement past conservation-related law would help to ensure that extinction can be mitigated as much as possible;
Now, therefore, as given due consideration and thereby decided by World Assembly Delegations and Ambassadors of member states united from across this grand both natural and artificial realm, and with the authority and assent of the same, the following shall hereby be enacted as binding World Assembly law by this most excellent chamber.
- Database. The Endangered Species Database Institution (ESDI) shall be formed as a subcommittee of the WA Endangered Species Committee and shall carry out the following tasks to the best of its ability;
- Compiling and regularly updating a database, known as the Public Endangered Species Table and hereinafter referred to as the 'Table', of all extant and recently extinct species, subspecies, and populations, and all data substantially relevant to past, current, or potential future conservation efforts thereof, including but not limited to natural habitat, diet, threats to survival, predators, genetic details, likelihood of extinction or endangerment, location, and sightings, based on objective information of clear demonstrableness from research, reports, or other evidence practically available to and publicly documented by the ESDI.
- Publishing the Table in full and in a manner that maximises the breadth and ease of public access.
- Using funds from the WA General Fund to complete tasks assigned to the ESDI in this resolution if necessary to do so.
- Investigations. The ESDI may conduct investigations to find new data that would significantly aid in updating the Table within member or consenting non-member states.
- Each member state where such an investigation is occurring must, to the best of its ability and in good faith, comply with all requests for information in regard to that investigation by the ESDI, except for such requests for information whose accessing, provision, or publication is demonstrably substantially likely to compromise national security or individual privacy.
- ESDI access for such an investigation may only be denied to areas within a member state to which access is restricted for all national residents without specific authorisation for protection of national security or public health or safety, or that area's status as private property, a quarantined area, or a vulnerable culturally or environmentally significant site, by that member state or an entity therein in charge of preventing unauthorised access to that area, unless the ESDI can clearly demonstrate that such access is to the minimal extent necessary to achieve the aim of that investigation. If the ESDI does enter such an area, it shall take sufficient precautions to duly minimise risk to national security, public health or safety, or damage to that private property or culturally or environmentally significant site.
- No member state or entity therein may wilfully otherwise obstruct the due course of any such investigation, via action or lack thereof.
- Provision of information. Member states must, to the best of their ability and in good faith, provide the ESDI with all research and factual data respectively published or discovered within their jurisdiction that they have practical access to, has not already been received by the ESDI, and is substantially relevant to any past, present, or future conservation efforts, unless the accessing, provision, or publication of that information is demonstrably substantially likely to compromise national security or individual privacy.
- Protection of sensitive information. Notwithstanding other mandates of this resolution, the ESDI shall not place in the Table, make public, or otherwise distribute any information in a manner that is substantially likely to compromise national security or individual privacy, nor shall the ESDI place in the Table raw intellectual property outside of mere fact.
