The legislature finds and declares that:

A. species of wildlife indigenous to the state that may be found to be threatened or endangered should be managed to maintain and, to the extent possible, enhance their numbers within the carrying capacity of the habitat;

B. the state should assist in the management of species of wildlife that are deemed to be endangered elsewhere by prohibiting the taking, possession, transportation, exportation, processing, sale or offering for sale or shipment within this state of species of wildlife listed on the United States lists of endangered fish and wildlife, unless such actions will assist in preserving or propagating the species;

C. adequate funding should be made available to the department of game and fish by annual appropriations from the general fund or from other sources separate and apart from the game protection fund for management of threatened or endangered species; and

D. because the management and recovery of threatened or endangered species are the responsibility of and a benefit to all of society, the costs of management and recovery should be the responsibility of all sectors of society, and those costs should be minimized and should be borne by federal, state and local governments with contributions from the private sector.

History: 1953 Comp., § 53-2-52, enacted by Laws 1974, ch. 83, § 3; 1995, ch. 145, § 3.

Cross references. — For the game protection fund, see 17-1-14 NMSA 1978.

The 1995 amendment, in Subsection A, deleted "and subspecies" following "species" and inserted "threatened or" preceding "endangered"; deleted "or subspecies" following "species" in three places in Subsection B; in Subsection C, inserted "should" following "funding", deleted "and fish" preceding "protection fund" and inserted "threatened or"; and added Subsection D.

Law reviews. — For article, "Hip Deep: A Survey of State Instream Flow Law From the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean", see 43 Nat. Resources J. 1151 (2003).