House Bill 3603
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Florida House of Representatives - 1998 HM 3603
By Representative Posey
1 House Memorial
2 A memorial to the Congress of the United States
3 opposing the Biosphere Reserves designation of
4 the Man and the Biosphere Program and urging
5 that the proposed Biodiversity Treaty not be
6 ratified by the United States.
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8 WHEREAS, the United Nations has promoted a Biosphere
9 Program throughout the world, and
10 WHEREAS, the Biosphere Program threatens to place
11 millions of acres of land under the control of the United
12 Nations via agreements or executive orders, and
13 WHEREAS, the United Nations Cultural, Educational, and
14 Scientific Organization (UNESCO) has created a worldwide
15 system of 328 Biosphere Reserves in 82 nations, and
16 WHEREAS, 47 United Nations-designated Biosphere
17 Reserves are within the sovereign borders of the United
18 States, and 2 United Nations-designated Biosphere Reserves are
19 within the State of Florida, and
20 WHEREAS, neither the Legislature of the State of
21 Florida nor the Congress of the United States has considered,
22 debated, or approved such designations, and
23 WHEREAS, such designations require strict land use
24 management procedures as set forth in the 1994 Strategic Plan
25 for the United States Man and the Biosphere Program, as
26 published by the United States Department, and further
27 described in the Global Biodiversity Assessment, published by
28 the United Nations Environment Program, expressly for the
29 Conferences of the Parties to the Convention on Biological
30 Diversity, and
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Florida House of Representatives - 1998 HM 3603
532-203-98
1 WHEREAS, Biosphere Reserves are, by definition,
2 designated to continually expand each of the three zones: the
3 core protected zone, the buffer zone, and the zone of
4 cooperation, and
5 WHEREAS, Biosphere Reserves are expected to be the
6 nucleus of the system of protected areas required by Article 8
7 of the Convention on Biological Diversity as expressed in the
8 minutes of the first meeting of the Conference of the Parties,
9 and
10 WHEREAS, no landowner within reach or potential reach
11 of the Biosphere Reserves has input or recourse to land use
12 management policies of UNESCO or the Conference of the Parties
13 to the Convention on Biological Diversity, and
14 WHEREAS, no body of elected officials, whether local,
15 state, or federal, has input, recourse, or veto power over
16 such land use management policies that may be prescribed by
17 either UNESCO or the Conference of the Parties to the
18 Convention on Biological Diversity, and
19 WHEREAS, even though the Convention on Biological
20 Diversity has not been ratified by the United States Senate,
21 the very presence of United Nations Biosphere Reserves on
22 American soil demonstrates the compliance with an
23 international treaty that has not been ratified, and
24 WHEREAS, the use of land in the biosphere areas for
25 ordinary commercial or agriculture purposes may be severely
26 restricted or eliminated, and
27 WHEREAS, the Everglades area and the Central Gulf Coast
28 Plains area of Florida have already been designated as
29 Biosphere Reserves, and
30 WHEREAS, none of the current areas included within the
31 Biosphere Program in Florida have been included at the request
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Florida House of Representatives - 1998 HM 3603
532-203-98
1 of or with the consent of the Legislature of the State of
2 Florida, and
3 WHEREAS, the Florida Legislature does not believe that
4 a request from the National Park Service or a tourist and
5 convention service should be adequate to subject land in
6 Florida to the control of the United Nations or any other
7 foreign parties, and
8 WHEREAS, the areas encompassed by these reserves
9 include not only public, but private lands, and
10 WHEREAS, the placing of environmental or other
11 restrictions upon the use of private lands has been held by a
12 number of recent United States Supreme Court decisions to
13 constitute a taking of the land for public purposes, and
14 WHEREAS, the proposed Biodiversity Treaty, if ratified
15 by the United States, would ultimately lead to the reality
16 that Floridians could not use their private and public lands
17 in the manner to which they have been accustomed, and
18 WHEREAS, there are no proposals to purchase the private
19 lands, by either the United States or the United Nations, and
20 WHEREAS, the restrictions contemplated together with
21 the outside control of the land encompassed by a Biosphere
22 Reserve constitutes an unlawful taking of that land in
23 violation of the Constitution of the United States, to wit:
24 Article I, Section 8, Clause 17, before any
25 state lands can be purchased, the consent of
26 the state legislature and not the state
27 executive branch, must be obtained.
28 Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2, "(N)othing in
29 this Constitution shall be so construed as to
30 Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or
31 of any particular State."
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Florida House of Representatives - 1998 HM 3603
532-203-98
1 Article IV, Section 4, "The United States shall
2 guarantee to every State in this Union a
3 Republican Form of Government."
4 Amendment V of the Constitution of the United
5 States, "....nor (shall any person) be deprived
6 of life, liberty, or property, without due
7 process of law; nor shall private property be
8 taken for public use, without just
9 compensation," and
10 WHEREAS, the virtual ceding of these lands to the
11 United Nations leaves the residents who own the land, local
12 governments, and the State of Florida without any legitimate
13 form for redress of grievances nor input into any
14 decision-making process relating to the Biosphere Reserve, and
15 WHEREAS, under Article VI of the Constitution of the
16 United States, this treaty would be given equal footing with
17 the Constitution of the United States, thus effectively
18 precluding any legal means of redress, and
19 WHEREAS, the Legislature of the State of Florida does
20 not wish to have portions of the state's land area controlled
21 by foreign minions over which it has no control and which are
22 not subject to its laws, NOW, THEREFORE,
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24 Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
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26 That the Legislature of the State of Florida is
27 unalterably opposed to the inclusion of any land within the
28 borders of the State of Florida within the purview of the
29 Biodiversity Treaty or any biodiversity program without the
30 express consent of the Legislature of the State of Florida, as
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Florida House of Representatives - 1998 HM 3603
532-203-98
1 provided by the Constitution of the United States and the
2 Constitution of the State of Florida.
3 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Florida Legislature
4 urges the members of the Congress of the United States, and
5 especially the Florida delegation to the Congress of the
6 United States, to oppose ratification of this treaty and the
7 inclusion of any land within the State of Florida in any
8 biosphere program of the United Nations.
9 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
10 dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
11 President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
12 United States House of Representatives, to each member of the
13 Florida delegation to the United States Congress, and to the
14 United States Representative to the United Nations.
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