J&A 6.302-1-Polar Bear Coordination of the Conservation and Mgmt of the Alaska-Chukotka Polar Bear Population

Contract No. 70181AM069 TAS: 14 13510000 United States Department of the InteriorJustification of Other than Full and Open Competition Under $25,000 1) Briefly, a description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency's needs and include the estimated value.The contractor will facilitate and guide meetings between U.S. and Russian scientists of the SWG involved in the preparation of harvest options and research recommendations. We anticipate that the contractor will also coordinate and co-chair, with a designated Russian counterpart, up to 4 meetings between U.S. and Russian Scientists to develop a suite of harvest management options based on sound science for consideration by the Commission. Subsequent to the required scientific deliberations a final draft Options Document will be circulated amongst the SWG. The contractor will also be responsible for organizing appropriate peer review of the document and circulate for consideration any comments received from peer reviewer(s) to the SWG. 2) Statutory Authority permitting other than full and open competition. Identify the statutory authority permitting with the FAR citation and FAR citation Title. FAR 6.302-1, Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. FAR 6.302-2, Unusual and compelling urgency. 3) WHY are the proposed contractor's unique qualifications for the nature of the acquisition requiring the use of the authority cited in item (2). The contractor is uniquely qualified to assist the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at this the initial implementation of the Agreement on the Conservation and Management of the Alaska-Chukotka Polar Bear Population (Agreement). The need for the Agreement was originally conceived and shepherd through the negotiating process by the contractor as the lead for the Service's polar bear program. The contractor's efforts, working with the Alaska Nanuuq Commission, as well as counterparts in Russia, provided the information and ultimate impetus for this Agreement. The contractor, alone, has the perspective to provide the coordination for this initial and crucial stage of the Agreement. Additionally, because of the Commission's need to have a options document prepared by its meeting in June 2010, the Government would suffer serious injury because it cannot reasonably obtain an expert to become fully cognizant of the interlaying components of this resource use issue. Furthermore, the agency cannot rapidly replace the contractor's 20 years in preparing and developing the Agreement. 4) WHAT effort was made to ensure that offers were solicited from as many potential sources as is practical. The issuance of this contract is a unique situation and an instance in which it is not possible to obtain competition. As noted above the contractor is uniquely qualified to meet the Service's needs and to provide the scope and frame of reference to the parties of the Agreement. While the Service has committed considerable effort to providing a basis for the option's document, the contractor's services are required to ensure that the resource use issues for the Chukchi Sea population of polar are accurately and completely captured at this moment in time. The Service has vested significant effort and expense in creating the foundations needed for management of this protected species and without the contractor's intimate understanding of the resource use and stakeholder concerns the Government's ability to meets its obligations under the Marine mammal Protection Act would be compromised. 5) A Description of the Market survey conducted and the results. Service employees contacted three experts in the field of wildlife conservation and stakeholder involvement in resource use issues, to inquire if they believed it was in the best interest of resource management to obtain expert assistance from an individual intimately involved in a resource use issue, especially when dealing with diverse stakeholder concerns. All three experts indicated that because of the complexity of issues associated with such work they would seek insight from those with most direct knowledge.