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SAVING THE CONGO BASIN:

THE STAKES, THE PLAN

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON 

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

MARCH 11, 2003

Serial No. 108–5

Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.house.gov/international—relations 

(II)

COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 

HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois, Chairman 

JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa 

DOUG BEREUTER, Nebraska 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, 

Vice Chairman 

DAN BURTON, Indiana 

ELTON GALLEGLY, California 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

CASS BALLENGER, North Carolina 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California 

PETER T. KING, New York 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

AMO HOUGHTON, New York 

JOHN M. MCHUGH, New York 

THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado 

RON PAUL, Texas 

NICK SMITH, Michigan 

JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania 

JEFF FLAKE, Arizona 

JO ANN DAVIS, Virginia 

MARK GREEN, Wisconsin 

JERRY WELLER, Illinois 

MIKE PENCE, Indiana 

THADDEUS G. MCCOTTER, Michigan 

WILLIAM J. JANKLOW, South Dakota 

KATHERINE HARRIS, Florida 

TOM LANTOS, California 

HOWARD L. BERMAN, California 

GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York 

ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American 

Samoa 

DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey 

ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey 

SHERROD BROWN, Ohio 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

ROBERT WEXLER, Florida 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

BARBARA LEE, California 

JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York 

JOSEPH M. HOEFFEL, Pennsylvania 

EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon 

SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada 

GRACE F. NAPOLITANO, California 

ADAM B. SCHIFF, California 

DIANE E. WATSON, California 

ADAM SMITH, Washington 

BETTY MCCOLLUM, Minnesota 

CHRIS BELL, Texas 

THOMAS E. MOONEY, SR., Staff Director/General Counsel 

ROBERT R. KING, Democratic Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman 

AMO HOUGHTON, New York 

THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado 

JEFF FLAKE, Arizona 

MARK GREEN, Wisconsin 

DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

BARBARA LEE, California 

BETTY McCOLLUM, Minnesota 

THOMAS P. SHEEHY, Subcommittee Staff Director 

MALIK M. CHAKA, Professional Staff Member 

NOELLE LUSANE, Democratic Professional Staff Member 

GREG GALVIN, Staff Associate 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

WITNESSES 

The Honorable Walter H. Kansteiner III, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of 

African Affairs, U.S. Department of State ......................................................... 7

The Honorable John F. Turner, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Oceans and 

International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, U.S. Department of 

State ...................................................................................................................... 10

The Honorable Constance Berry Newman, Assistant Administrator, Bureau 

for Africa, U.S. Agency for International Development .................................... 15

J. Michael Fay, Ph.D., Ecologist Wildlife Conservation Society .......................... 23

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING 

The Honorable Edward R. Royce, a Representative in Congress from the 

State of California, and Chairman, Subcommittee on Africa: Prepared statement ...................................................................................................................... 3

The Honorable Walter H. Kansteiner III: Prepared statement ........................... 8

The Honorable John F. Turner: Prepared statement ........................................... 13

The Honorable Constance Berry Newman: Prepared statement ......................... 16

J. Michael Fay: Prepared statement ...................................................................... 27

APPENDIX 

Dr. Richard W. Carroll, Director of Africa and Madagascar, Endangered 

Spaces Program, World Wildlife Fund: Prepared statement ............................ 37

(1)

SAVING THE CONGO BASIN: THE STAKES, 

THE PLAN 

TUESDAY, MARCH 11, 2003

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, Washington, DC. 

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2:30 p.m. in Room 

2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Edward R. Royce, 

[Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding. 

Mr. ROYCE. This hearing of the Subcommittee on Africa will 

come to order. 

The tropical forests of Central Africa’s Congo Basin are second 

in size only to those in the Amazon Basin. Now, that is nearly 

seven times the size of California. They are an important economic 

resource for an estimated 20 million people in this region. These 

forests also play a critical role in sustaining the environment—absorbing carbon dioxide and cleansing the water and holding soil. 

The Congo Basin contains the most diverse grouping of plants and 

animals in Africa, including rare and endangered species such as 

the eastern lowland gorilla, mountain gorilla, chimpanzee and the 

white rhino. These plants and animals are invaluable for so many 

reasons, including their genetic and biochemical information, which 

could spark advances in medical, agricultural and industrial technology. 

The Congo Basin is a global treasure, but this treasure is threatened as Congo Basin forests are coming under growing pressures. 

Ten years ago, these forests were virtually untouched. Today, logging operations, driven by a growing Asian demand for tropical 

hardwood, are shrinking these forests. One estimate has logging 

taking out Congo Basin forest areas at a rate of twice the size of 

Rhode Island each and every year. 

Subsistence agriculture pressures, expanding with populations, 

are taking a toll. Meanwhile, the construction of logging roads and 

other developments, including the proliferation of small arms in 

the region, is putting intense hunting pressure on wildlife or 

‘‘bushmeat.’’ At current kill levels, most species of apes and other 

primates, of large antelope and elephants, will disappear from the 

Congo Basin, with some becoming extinct. Poorly managed logging 

and hunting threatens to do to the Congo Basin what it did to West 

Africa, which lost much of its forest and wildlife to over exploitation. Purged of wildlife, some Congo Basin forests already are eerily quiet, ‘‘empty forests’’ as they are called. If current deforestation and wildlife depletion rates are not reversed, the six counVerDate Mar 21 2002 11:30 Apr 11, 2003 Jkt 085639 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\AFRICA\031103\85639 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL
2

tries of the Congo Basin most immediately, but also the world, will 

pay an incalculable economic, environmental, social and cultural 

price. 

Last September, Secretary of State Colin Powell launched the 

Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) in Johannesburg. The 

partnership, involving governments, international organizations 

and businesses, is focused on 11 key landscapes in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of Congo. It aims to support 

a network of national parks and protected areas and well-managed 

forestry concessions. 

The Congo Basin Forest Partnership, building upon previous 

U.S. efforts, is working to combat illegal logging and poaching and 

other unsustainable practices and to give local populations an economic stake in the preservation of the forests, including through 

the development of ecotourism. This initiative has received widespread applause, including from leading conservationists. Now everyone needs to deliver on this initiative. 

Now, there are three non-governmental organizations that I 

want to mention—Conservation International, the World Conservation Society, and the World Wildlife Fund. They deserve recognition for their early financial contributions to this effort. 

The most dramatic move toward conserving Congo Basin forests 

was taken by Gabon. Last September, President Omar Bongo announced the creation of 13 national parks, representing over 10 

percent of Gabon’s surface area. Previously, Gabon had no national 

park system. These parks cover some of the least exploited tropical 

forests and coastal areas in Africa. The partnership will back this 

initiative in hopes of seeing that these are not just paper parks. As 

with all conservation efforts, it is critical that the conservation 

commitment come from the ground. 

I would like to recognize Ambassador Ogouebandja from Gabon, 

who is with us today. Ambassador, will you stand? Thank you, sir. 

I believe, in fact, we have most, if not all, of the Ambassadors of 

the Congo Basin countries here with us, and we appreciate that. 

Conservation is not easy. What Americans today take for granted, Yosemite and Yellowstone and our magnificent national park 

system, took great foresight and political commitment to make a 

reality. It will be a major challenge to establish and maintain effective regimes to regulate logging and hunting in the Congo Basin. 

These are impoverished governments dependent upon revenues 

from natural resource exploitation. They are hindered by weak and 

poorly funded agencies. Corruption is a problem. Wildlife provides 

a relatively inexpensive source of needed protein. These countries 

lack local NGOs focused on conservation. Civil unrest and war has 

plagued several Congo Basin countries, among other hurdles facing 

conservation efforts. 

But, there is reason for hope. With the partnership and other efforts, we have built unprecedented momentum for the conservation 

of these forests, and we have lessons that can be learned from conservation efforts elsewhere, including failed efforts in West Africa. 

The U.S. must remain engaged, working with the African governments and others to maintain this momentum. 

3

In 1997, this Subcommittee held a hearing on managing Africa’s 

natural resources. At that hearing I said, ‘‘As much as some would 

like it to be, Africa cannot be one big preserve.’’ With that hearing, 

we featured the U.S. backed CAMPFIRE program, designed to give 

southern Africans an economic incentive to manage well their natural resources. Too many conservation efforts, cooked up far away, 

ignore the interests of average Africans. 

That day we heard from a witness who brings this kind of pragmatism to his work and who has done more than anyone else to 

bring attention to the stakes we all have in conserving the Congo 

Basin forests, and that is Michael Fay. Among his many activities 

publicizing these magnificent forests and the threats they face has 

been his 440 day trek through the Congo Basin in 1999 and 2000, 

fully documented by National Geographic. Michael Fay recently 

worked with President Bongo to help bring about his landmark 

declaration of a new national park system. Especially for young 

people watching today, Michael Fay is a testament to the great difference in the world that one determined person can make. 

I will now turn to the Ranking Member, Mr. Payne, for any opening statement he may wish to make. Congressman Payne. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Royce follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE EDWARD R. ROYCE, A REPRESENTATIVE IN

CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, AND CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON

AFRICA

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The following is the opening statement of Africa Subcommittee Chairman Ed Royce (R–CA) at this afternoon’s hearing on saving the 

Congo Basin: 

‘‘The tropical forests of Central Africa’s Congo Basin, second in size only to those 

of the Amazon Basin, nearly seven times the size of California, are an important 

economic resource for an estimated 20 million people in the region. These forests 

also play a critical role in sustaining the environment—absorbing carbon dioxide, 

cleansing water, and holding soil. The Congo Basin contains the most diverse grouping of plants and animals in Africa, including rare and endangered species, such as 

the eastern lowland gorilla, mountain gorilla, chimpanzee, and the white rhino. 

These plants and animals are invaluable for so many reasons, including their genetic and biochemical information, which could spark advances in medical, agricultural, and industrial technology. The Congo Basin is a global treasure. 

‘‘But this treasure is threatened, as Congo Basin forests are coming under growing pressures. Ten years ago, these forests were virtually untouched. Today, logging 

operations, driven by a growing Asian demand for tropical hardwoods, are shrinking 

these forests. One estimate has logging taking out Congo Basin forest areas at a 

rate of twice the size of Rhode Island each and every year. Subsistence agriculture 

pressures, expanding with populations, are taking a toll. Meanwhile, the construction of logging roads and other developments, including the proliferation of small 

arms in the region, is putting intense hunting pressure on wildlife, or ‘‘bushmeat.’’ 

At current kill levels, most species of apes and other primates, large antelope, and 

elephants will disappear from the Congo Basin, with some becoming extinct. Poorly 

managed logging and hunting threatens to do to the Congo Basin what it did to 

West Africa, which lost much of its forest and wildlife to over exploitation. Purged 

of wildlife, some Congo Basin forests already are eerily quiet ‘‘empty forests’’. If current deforestation and wildlife depletion rates are not reversed, the six countries of 

the Congo Basin most immediately, but also the world, will pay an incalculable economic, environmental, social and cultural price. 

‘‘Last September, Secretary of State Colin Powell launched the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) in Johannesburg. The CBFP, involving governments, international organizations, and businesses, is focused on eleven key landscapes in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial 

Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of Congo. It aims to support a network of national 

parks and protected areas and well-managed forestry concessions. The CBFP, building upon previous U.S. efforts, is working to combat illegal logging and poaching 

and other unsustainable practices, and to give local populations an economic stake 

4

in the preservation of the forests, including through the development of ecotourism. 

This initiative has received widespread applause, including from leading conservationists. Now everyone needs to deliver. Three NGOS—Conservation International, 

the World Conservation Society, and the World Wildlife Fund—deserve recognition 

for their early financial contributions to this effort. 

‘‘The most dramatic move toward conserving Congo Basin forests has been taken 

by Gabon. Last September, President Omar Bongo announced the creation of 13 national parks, representing over 10 percent of Gabon’s surface area. Previously, 

Gabon had no national park system. These parks cover some of the least exploited 

tropical forests and coastal areas in Africa. The CBFP will back this initiative in 

hope of seeing that these are not just ‘‘paper parks.’’ As with all conservation efforts, 

it is critical that the conservation commitment come from the ground. 

‘‘Conservation is not easy. What Americans today take for granted, Yosemite and 

Yellowstone and our magnificent national park system, took great foresight and political commitment to make a reality. It will be a major challenge to establish and 

maintain effective regimes to regulate logging and hunting in the Congo Basin. 

These are impoverished governments dependent upon revenues from natural resource exploitation. They are hindered by weak and poorly funded agencies. Corruption is a problem. Wildlife provides a relatively inexpensive source of needed protein. These countries lack local NGOs focused on conservation. Civil unrest and war 

has plagued several Congo Basin countries, among other hurdles facing conservation 

efforts. 

‘‘But there is reason for hope. With the Partnership and other efforts, we have 

built unprecedented momentum for the conservation of these forests. And we have 

lessons that can be learned from conservation efforts elsewhere, including failed efforts in West Africa. The U.S. must remain engaged, working with the African governments and others to maintain this momentum. 

‘‘In 1997, this Subcommittee held a hearing on managing Africa’s natural resources. At that hearing, I said, ‘‘as much as some would like it to be, Africa cannot 

be one big preserve.’’ With that hearing, we featured the U.S.-backed CAMPFIRE 

program, designed to give southern Africans an economic incentive to manage well 

their natural resources. Too many conservation efforts, cooked up far away, ignore 

the interests of average Africans. 

‘‘That day we heard from a witness who brings this kind of pragmatism to his 

work and who has done more than anyone else to bring attention to the stakes we 

all have in conserving the Congo Basin forests: Michael Fay. Among his many activities publicizing these magnificent forests and the threats they face has been his 

440-day trek through the Congo Basin in 1999–2000, fully documented by National 

Geographic. Michael Fay recently worked with President Bongo to help bring about 

his landmark declaration of a new national park system. Especially for young people 

watching today, Michael Fay is a testament to the great difference in the world that 

one determined person can make.

Mr. PAYNE. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Let me commend you for calling this very important hearing, Saving The 

Congo Basin: The Stakes, The Plan. It is good to see Assistant Secretary Kansteiner and Assistant Secretary Turner and Assistant 

Administrator Newman and Dr. Fay, who we will hear from later. 

Let me just commend our representatives from State Department 

for the outstanding work that they continually do to try to keep the 

issues of Africa before the Congress. Of course, many of the problems that we are seeing with conservation could be alleviated by 

having more concentration and focus on the continent to alleviate 

poverty in general. Once we can work toward overall alleviating 

poverty, then we know that many of these problems that we do see 

will vanish. However, we cannot wait to preserve wildlife waiting 

for us to overcome poverty in the continent. I think there are certainly goals that we need to work with simultaneously. 

Let me thank you for calling this important hearing. I thank the 

esteemed witnesses who have come to give testimony. Let me also 

welcome the Africa Diplomatic Corps, who have become very active 

here on Capitol Hill with the AGOA Act and with other issues confronting Africa. We would like to commend you for your activity. 

5

Since recorded history, the continent of Africa has been known 

for its great universities, back in the days of Timbuktu in Mali and 

for the great kingdoms like the great Zimbabwe Kingdom, centuries of art and culture. I have had the opportunity to visit the 

university and the libraries up in Timbuktu, and so we know there 

was really an era, there was a time when Africa was a leading continent in the world. 

More commonly, Africa is known for its great wealth and beauty 

even today, even though we see abject poverty and a lot of problems because of perhaps neglect or other priorities during the past 

decades, but the wealth and beauty is still there. As we know, it 

has the largest concentration of natural resources, the abundance 

of diamonds, a wide variety of gems, minerals like coltan, plants 

with extraordinary healing properties that are often used in pharmaceuticals, although rarely attributed about where the source of 

these drugs come from, many right from this Congo Basin. 

The continent is also famous for its wildlife, as we know, including the gorillas, as we have heard, and elephants and zebras and 

hippopotamus and so forth. We certainly are hoping that this initiative will help preserve the wildlife that had in the past been in 

great abundance, but, as we see, a trend in the wrong direction. 

The Congo Basin itself is perhaps one of the most spectacular of 

the areas in terms of its rain forests, we have heard second only 

to the great rain forest in Brazil. The animals and plants just 

thrive there. I had the opportunity to visit on several occasions, 

and it is just a sight to behold. 

Too often, we hear about exploitations of these precious natural 

resources in Africa, so the discussion about a new partnership 

which will work to preserve and protect precious wildlife and raw 

materials is certainly a welcome one and one that is certainly overdue. In that vein, I commend the Administration and Secretary 

Powell for the leadership shown on the issue and the commitment 

to give $12 million a year to the partnership totaling $53 million 

by the year 2005. 

The partnership is between NGOs, industry and governments 

who have put forth a sustained effort toward thwarting deforestation in the Congo Basin and in 11 priority landscapes. The money 

will go toward the establishment of, as we have heard already, new 

national parks which will serve as a haven for floral and fauna, 

whose survival is so key to the environmental climate and the communities which live among them and toward the strengthening of 

government forest authorities and providing opportunities for sustainable development. 

The Congo River Basin ecosystem is being compromised by the 

increased logging, the bushmeat trade, as we have heard, diamond 

mining and the current conflict in the Great Lakes region. Secretary Powell’s announcement of this new partnership at the World 

Summit for a Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August 

2002 marked a step in the right direction in terms of preservation 

of Africa’s raw materials and wildlife. 

I also commend the leaders of the six countries in the river basin 

who have expressed their pledge to the cause as well—Cameroon, 

Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Brazzaville, Republic of 

Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Central Africa Republic. 

6

I am encouraged by this progressive move, and we hope that the 

intent of the initiative is carried out and will be implemented properly, and we hope that even with some of the new initiatives some 

of the African new initiatives like NEPAD and with the potential 

MCA here, the Millennium Challenge Account, that all of these can 

be used to shore up and assist the continent as it tries to work its 

way back. 

Once again, let me commend the Chairman. I look forward to listening to the testimony of our expert witnesses. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. ROYCE. Thank you, Congressman Payne. 

Before proceeding, I would like to comment on two timely issues. 

First, Secretary Kansteiner, I would like to recognize the Administration for acting last week against the regime of Robert Mugabe 

in Zimbabwe. President Bush issued an Executive Order under the 

International Emergency Economic Powers Act to block all property and interests in property of 73 individuals whose actions and 

policies have undermined Zimbabwe’s democratic institutions. 

President Bush has taken a well-deserved and reasoned action. 

Some individuals on this asset freeze list are involved in pillaging the natural resource wealth of the Democrat Republic of 

Congo according to the United Nations, so there is a direct connection to what we are discussing today, and I know, Assistant Secretary, that you are the one who has been most closely tracking 

this issue. I am glad we acted. 

Second is in regard to Mr. Charles Brumskine. He is a Liberian 

who recently returned to his country because he believes in democracy. In Charles Taylor’s Liberia, however, democracy is a crime, 

so this gentleman, who I have known for many years, has put his 

life on the line. Press accounts are reporting that Charles 

Brumskine is now harassed by Liberian Government authorities, 

being denied the right to leave Liberia based upon some bureaucratic pretense. 

I trust, Assistant Secretary Kansteiner, that we are keeping a 

watchful eye on this case, and I should also mention that Charles 

Taylor is engineering the environmental destruction of one of the 

last significant forests in that region in West Africa, and that is the 

clear cutting of Liberian forests, which is unconscionable. 

On our first panel we have Walter Kansteiner, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. He served in the past with the 

National Security Council as director of African Affairs and as an 

African specialist on the staff of the Secretary of State. 

We have John Turner with us, who is Assistant Secretary of 

State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific 

Affairs. In this position he heads Department of State programs 

and activities concerning HIV-AIDS and other infectious diseases, 

the environment, climate change, oceans affairs, and science and 

technology. 

John Turner has extensive conservation experience. Prior to his 

appointment as Assistant Secretary, he was President and Chief 

Executive Officer of the Conservation Fund, a national non-profit 

organization dedicated to private/public partnerships to protect 

land and water resources. 

7

Constance Newman is Assistant Administrator for Africa at the 

U.S. Agency for International Development. She has extensive experience managing public and private organizations, as well as 

broad international experience. 

Assistant Administrator Newman had served as a private consultant to the World Bank, acting as a liaison to South African political parties. In 1987 and 1988, she served as a cooperative housing foundation consultant on a World Bank project in Lesotho. 

I thank you all for being with us. I am going to ask each witness 

to summarize your statements so we can move on to questions and 

answers. I should also mention we are looking to move to the second panel by 3:15 at the latest. 

With that, Mr. Kansteiner, if you would like to begin. 

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE WALTER H. KANSTEINER III, 

ASSISTANT SECRETARY, BUREAU OF AFRICAN AFFAIRS, U.S. 

DEPARTMENT OF STATE 

Mr. KANSTEINER. I know we need to get to that second panel so 

we will be very brief, but on Zimbabwe let met thank you for your 

leadership and your interest in that very sad tale that is continuing to unfold. 

On Liberia, we will keep an eye on the Charles Brumskine case. 

I might add that civil society is under duress in that country and 

has been for a long time. The clear cutting of the timber that you 

referred to is a resource that Charles Taylor should not be allowed 

to have free reign on. I think the international community needs 

to work together to look at ways to increase pressure on making 

sure that resource there is being spent wisely and in a fair and just 

manner for the people of Liberia. 

Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Kansteiner, in terms of Charles Taylor’s actions 

there, to the extent that the United Nations could take action on 

timber harvesting and enforce that action to prevent the clear cutting of timber, that would be very helpful. 

Mr. KANSTEINER. And this Administration would be supportive of 

that. 

The Congo Basin Forest Partnership that we meet here about 

today is an extremely important one and one, quite frankly, that 

Secretary Powell and Connie Newman and John Turner and I feel 

very passionate about, and so we thank you for this opportunity. 

We also thank you, Mr. Chairman and Congressman Payne, for 

your leadership and your interest and your involvement in this. 

Quite frankly, if we did not have Congress with us, none of it 

would get done, so thank you very much. 

Protecting the ecosystems of Africa is one of this Administration’s top priorities in Africa. Tourism is the second largest hard 

currency earner for Africa today, and if you do not protect the ecosystems, there will not be any tourists. So we need to do this not 

only because it is the right thing to do for Africa and the world, 

but because we also have to have sustainable development. I leave 

that topic to John Turner who, quite frankly, is truly a pro when 

it comes to discussing viable, sustainable development. 

As you made reference, Mr. Chairman, the NGO community met 

with Secretary Powell on the edge of the Congo Basin forest not too 

long ago. I would like to relay a quote from that meeting that I was 

8

quite proud of, and that I was thrilled that Colin Powell said. It 

went like this:

‘‘As long as I am Secretary of State, conserving African wilderness areas will be a priority that the United States will vigorously pursue. I am and always will be a conservationist for Africa.’’

As John Turner and I were sitting there, we were extremely 

pleased to hear the words come out of Secretary Powell’s mouth. 

Now, as you say, it is our turn to take that policy and put it into 

action. 

What we all saw in Gabon was a wonderful opportunity for a 

U.S. Government to partner with the Government of Gabon and 

the NGO community and to protect the Congo River Basin rain forest. Gabon is primed and ready for help, but there are other opportunities in the Basin, and we will look for multiple projects that 

will preserve and protect the landscapes throughout the six country 

region. 

I will just have one more quick quote, and then I will turn it over 

to John, and that again is from Secretary Powell. It was actually 

before this Full Committee. He said,

‘‘The Congo Basin Partnership will help preserve key landscapes, and there is one individual, Michael Fay, who is crucial 

to that preservation.’’

He went on to say,

‘‘Michael Fay is a marvelous man, a naturalist who walked the 

whole length of the Congo Basin, and recently Mike was gored 

by one of his elephants that he clearly had yet to secure a complete friendship with, but I am pleased that Michael is recovering well.’’

Well, we all are pleased that Michael is recovering well, and we 

look forward to hearing his exciting testimony in the second panel. 

I would now like to turn it over to John Turner and to Connie 

Newman. The three of us are enjoying kind of a new triumvirate 

where we are learning to pull various bureaus in the State Department, as well as AID, together in behalf of these efforts, and we 

are kind of forging new pathways as we go along. But the three of 

us are committed to this partnership, and we are going to see it 

through. 

Thank you very much. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Kansteiner follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE WALTER H. KANSTEINER III, ASSISTANT

SECRETARY, BUREAU OF AFRICAN AFFAIRS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me to testify 

here today. Conserving the Congo Basin Forests is a topic that Secretary Powell and 

I are passionate about. As Secretary Powell informed you during your exchange 

with him last month during the budget hearings, he had the opportunity to get a 

first-hand feel for the region’s conservation potential and challenges when he visited 

Gabon last September following President Bongo’s announcement of his decision to 

create a new national park network. As you heard, the visit left quite an impression 

on the Secretary. 

The Congo Basin forest is a global treasure in a region of both great challenge 

and great opportunity. The forest is not only a ‘‘global lung’’ but a rich store of biodiversity and a source of livelihood for millions. The fate of Africa’s forests and natVerDate Mar 21 2002 11:30 Apr 11, 2003 Jkt 085639 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 F:\WORK\AFRICA\031103\85639 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL
9

ural resources is inextricably linked to questions of governance, national and regional peace, security and economic growth. Poor conservation practices and conflict 

over resource use has the potential to undermine stability and hamper prospects for 

growth. Conversely, sound natural resource management will help promote sustainable trade and economic growth, transparency and openness, and mitigate health 

threats. That is why we consider conserving Africa’s irreplaceable natural resources 

as one of our central priorities in Africa. 

The Congo Basin forest is the second largest area of contiguous tropical forest in 

the world; the Amazon Basin is the largest. Much of the forest remains relatively 

intact but pressures and threats to the forest are growing, including from rapid urbanization, uncontrolled timber exploitation and logging, and unsustainable commercial bushmeat hunting. The lack of capacity and resources for enforcement leave 

even protected areas vulnerable to poaching and illegal logging. 

The good news is that it is not too late for the forests of the Congo Basin, nor 

are we starting from scratch. The U.S. government, largely through the Central African Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE) and the Smithsonian Institution, the European Union, and tireless non-governmental organization (NGO) advocates and activists such as the World Wildlife Fund, Wildlife Conservation Society, 

Conservation International, and the African Wildlife Foundation have been active 

in the region for years. They have demonstrated, with limited resources, that welldesigned programs can work. 

A new and exciting development in the region is the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP), launched by Secretary Powell along with other leaders of the partnership, at the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) in September 

2002. The CBFP is a partnership of countries, NGOs, and private businesses dedicated to the conservation and sustainable use and management of the forest. It reflects the Administration’s high-level commitment to the Congo Basin Forests and 

a strengthened commitment by the countries of the region to work in partnership 

with the international community. The six African countries whose forests are covered by the CBFP are Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of 

Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of Congo. Our work in the 

CBFP reflects a shared commitment to forge a new, more productive and effective, 

way of working with each other in true partnership. It is imperative that we use 

our scarce resources wisely and not only listen to each other but hear and understand the messages being conveyed, even if they are not always what we think we 

want to hear. 

Each of the six African countries of the Congo Basin Forest region has committed 

to address the challenge of conserving its natural forest heritage while providing 

jobs, training, and income for the people in the region who depend on its natural 

resources. As economic pressures mount to capitalize on these forests, the countries 

have made it clear they recognize their important stake in the CBFP. 

Just as the CBFP is building on previous international community efforts, it is 

also building on previous African-led efforts. In 1999, the Yaounde Declaration, 

signed by the six heads of state of the Congo Basin, set forth strong commitments 

for regional cooperation to improve resource management, create trans-border protected areas, harmonize forest policies, combat poaching, and develop sustainable 

use approaches in consultation with rural populations and economic operators. The 

process launched at Yaounde led to the creation of a Council of Ministers for Forests 

of Central Africa (COMIFAC), which includes members beyond the CBFP countries 

and is responsible for coordination of forest policy among the member governments. 

COMIFAC has developed a ‘‘Plan of Convergence’’ and an action plan for the region 

that will serve as reference points for CBFP activities. Other major forest initiatives 

in the region have been brought under the COMIFAC umbrella, most notably the 

African Timber Organization and the Conference on Tropical Forest Ecosystems of 

Central Africa, which sponsors dialogue with civil society. 

We should not delude ourselves into thinking that success is assured. Many institutions in the region remain fragile and old habits and attitudes about the use and 

value of the environment do not change overnight. Nevertheless, we have seen a 

number of examples of progress. 

At the WSSD, Gabon announced the creation of 13 national parks, which encompass ten percent of Gabon’s land area, and the Gabonese government is cooperating 

closely with the U.S. government and environmental organizations to protect its 

natural heritage. The Republic of Congo is collaborating on an innovative public-private partnership in the Kabo forest concession to control poaching and ensure sustainable forestry. This forest is part of one of the 11 key landscapes on which the 

U.S. contribution to the CBFP will focus. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, 

while the country was still at war, conservation rangers on opposite sides of the 

lines remained steadfastly at their posts protecting wildlife and forests and easing 

10

communications across lines and between the sides. To help focus its participation 

in CBFP, the Parks Institute and the Ministry for the Environment created a task 

force last month to examine activities for five key landscapes in the country. Cameroon continues to build capacity in the forestry sector and civil society is actively 

pressing for stronger sustainable management of the country’s natural resources. In 

2001 Cameroon formally protected the Lobeke Park, which is a crucial part of the 

tri-national Sangha complex, which includes parks in the Central African Republic 

and Republic of Congo. Equatorial Guinea and the Central African Republic were 

eager participants in the first organizational meeting of the CBFP in Paris and have 

declared their commitment to the CBFP. 

As the example of the rangers in the Democratic Republic of Congo illustrates, 

conservation can be a win-win situation that advances broader policy objectives and 

help build trust, not simply between warring sides but between governments and 

communities. Conservation is not a people versus animals and trees debate. When 

wisely pursued, it is a means to ensure that biodiversity is protected AND poverty 

is reduced through the creation of sustainable economic opportunities. A well-managed protected area can be a source of jobs and a generator of revenue. The conservation of biodiversity can produce revenue as a result of research into natural 

products that could have health or other applications (such work is being done by 

the Smithsonian Institution and the National Institutes of Health in Cameroon and 

they would like to replicate it elsewhere in the region). Responsible mining and forest concessions can ensure both jobs and sustainable resource exploitation to fuel 

economic growth and trade. Controlling poaching and unsustainable commercial 

bushmeat trade promotes respect for the rule of law, preserves biodiversity, and 

mitigates health risks. On the other hand, unsustainable logging practices and continued reliance on bushmeat may have negative health effects. Evidence is mounting that recent Ebola outbreaks in Congo-Brazzaville and Gabon were triggered 

when hunters and villagers came into contact with infected animals. And malariabearing mosquitoes often flourish in the standing pools of newly-cut forests. 

Conservation and sound resource management, by definition, require transparency and inclusiveness. The complexities of protecting biodiversity and meeting 

the sometimes conflicting needs of affected communities can best be addressed 

through open processes. The programs that the United States supports in the Congo 

Basin place a premium on these qualities and seek to build a capacity and constituency for conservation among the people of the region. For example, we have supported participatory mapping exercises of the forest and provided small grants to 

local NGOs to carry out work such as education and monitoring. 

Conservation programs will not immediately produce flourishing democracies, regional cooperation, vibrant civil societies, or accelerating economic growth but they 

can serve as hopeful and empowering examples that can radiate well beyond the 

realm of conservation. The process is long and far from linear, but through the 

CBFP and our assistance programs, we are going to do our utmost to make the positive vision a reality. As Secretary Powell emphasized during his visit to Gabon, we 

believe our money spent on conservation in the Congo Basin is money well-spent. 

The United States has a history of investing in the environment and we are committed to continuing the tradition. As Secretary Powell said, ‘‘. . . we don’t see this 

as a one-time shot. We are in this for the long run.’’

Mr. ROYCE. Thank you. 

Assistant Secretary John Turner. 

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE JOHN F. TURNER, ASSISTANT SECRETARY, BUREAU OF OCEANS AND INTERNATIONAL 

ENVIRONMENTAL AND SCIENTIFIC AFFAIRS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE 

Mr. TURNER. Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, I join 

Walter and Connie in thanking you for the opportunity to appear 

before you today. Indeed, we have been working in partnership 

with a lot of passion and focus on this exciting opportunity for the 

United States and Africa, and I want to echo Walter’s expression 

of appreciation to you, Mr. Chairman, for your personal interest 

and support in this exciting collaborative effort. 

I think, as you opened the hearing with, that we need to remind 

ourselves of the immensity of this region, some 700,000 square 

11

miles of opportunity. If my calculations are right, that is a size that 

is equivalent to the five states of California, Texas, Arizona, New 

Mexico and Utah. Indeed, it is a global treasure of biodiversity and 

water systems and forests upon whose natural resources millions 

of people depend for their livelihood. 

Walter talked about the trip that we took with Secretary Powell 

after the World Summit in Johannesburg, and I believe this might 

be perhaps the first trip by a Secretary of State from the United 

States solely for forest conservation. 

I believe the partnership promises to be the most ambitious conservation project in the history of Africa. Working together, we 

have the potential to positively impact over 75 million acres of one 

of the largest intact tropical forests left anywhere in the world, including the establishment and making reality some 27 national 

parks. 

It is a great opportunity for the United States to build on the impressive efforts and existing cooperation that is already ongoing in 

the Basin between the governments there, between the non-profit 

community and the private sector. Of course, that great work is exemplified by Michael Fay, who is with us here today, whose mega 

transect of 1,200 miles captured the imaginations of Americans and 

people all over the world over this special place and the need to 

protect it. 

It is an opportunity for the United States to follow up on commitments, remarkable commitments of the six African nations and 

their citizens who are willing to hedge their future and economic 

and social well being on conservation and better stewardship of 

their natural resources. The U.S. priorities will indeed be to help 

provide people sustainable means of a livelihood through one, better management of their forest concessions; two, better practices for 

sustainable agriculture; and, three, an enhanced ecotourism industry. 

Our focus will be to build capacity and improve natural resource 

governance in these six countries with a special focus on combating 

illegal logging, reducing wildlife poaching and commercial 

bushmeat trade, involve communities in the decision making process, implement better forestry management practices and low impact logging, and effectively develop and manage a national park 

system. 

I am very pleased that President Bush indeed has committed $53 

million for the partnership through 2005. These resources we hope 

to leverage against the resources from other public and private 

partners. I think the President’s support for the Congo Basin reflects the leadership that he has given to protect tropical forests 

out around the world. 

In addition to the Congo Basin Partnership, I want to mention 

the expansion of the Tropical Forest Conservation Act, his direction 

that the United States take a lead in combating illegal logging 

around the globe, our recent action in Latin America to stem the 

trade of mahogany that is illegally sourced and unsustainable in 

our work in the Amazon Basin. 

I would like to mention just briefly some of the steps that we are 

now taking on this initiative. Recently, in January we co-hosted 

with France the first international meeting of the partnership in 

12

Paris to clarify roles and the allocation of resources. At that meeting, the U.S. offer to help facilitate the international process for the 

next 2 years was accepted. 

Recently, we sent an interagency assessment team to the region 

to look at capacity building needs. We hosted an ecotourism conference and will help to sponsor law enforcement conferences in the 

region later in the year. We are going to work for a comprehensive 

survey of existing laws, regulations and programs in the region to 

see where the gaps are and which can be strengthened. 

It was mentioned the recognition of the outstanding partnerships 

that we have, now 30. The Wildlife Conservation Society, Conservation International, World Wildlife Fund were mentioned. In addition, in the non-profit arena we have the World Resources Institute, Forest Trend, the Smithsonian Institute and the Jane Goodall 

Institute. 

I am pleased to note that folks from our American forest industry 

are joining us. The American Forest and Paper Association, as well 

as the Society of American Foresters, are bringing their expertise 

and management experience. 

We have a large team of interagency participants—the National 

Forest Service, the National Park Service, Soil & Conservation Society, Fish & Wildlife Service, Department of Commerce, NASA, 

USGS and OPEC to name a few. Of course, our main partners are 

the six African countries that are represented here today, and we 

are also joined by the U.K., South Africa, Japan, Germany, France, 

Canada and Belgium. 

In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, although I believe we are humbled 

by the challenges I think we can be proud of the partnership that 

has been brought together and the progress that has been made to 

date, including the strategic planning. Obviously there is much to 

be done in an area of the world that has been ravaged for decades 

by war, corruption, violence, poverty, disease and practices that are 

unsustainable in the use of their natural resources. 

I think we all realize that this magical region of Africa is indeed 

at a critical crossroads in its history. I believe that U.S. leadership, 

resources and experience, in tandem with all other partners, can 

contribute significantly to economic development, alleviation of poverty and suffering, and the improvement of the overall governance 

through workable conservation and a resource management program. 

All of us working together can demonstrate a model of sustainability which hopefully can be applied to other developing regions 

of the world. I think, Mr. Chairman, it is an opportunity to export 

indeed what has been one of America’s great inventions, which indeed occurred in 1872 with the creation of the world’s first national 

park in my native state of Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park. 

We have followed suit with the establishment of refuge systems, 

forest, wild and scenic rivers, endangered species programs, and I 

think our ability to share that with the world, including Africa, can 

reap great benefits. I believe we are on the right track. All the 

partners can help build a lasting legacy of wild places and wild 

critters in this marvelous region of west central Africa and, in 

doing so, improve the lives and the future of millions of our African 

neighbors. 

13

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Turner follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE JOHN F. TURNER, ASSISTANT SECRETARY, BUREAU OF OCEANS AND INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL AND SCIENTIFIC AF- FAIRS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee: 

Thank you for the opportunity to share my views about the Congo Basin Forest 

Partnership (CBFP), what it is, how we came to develop and support it, activities 

to date, and what we expect for its future. 

The Congo Basin forest—spanning 700,000 square miles or the equivalent of the 

combined sizes of California, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah—is the world’s 

second largest intact tropical forest after the Amazon. It catches, cleans, and sends 

to the ocean the waters from millions of hectares of pristine forests upon which millions of Africa’s inhabitants depend on for their livelihoods and survival. Within 

these forests are a countless number of incredible species of plants, insects, wildlife 

and trees. Many of these species have been identified just within the past few years. 

This forest is a global treasure whose resources must be protected and conserved 

for the economic and environmental good of Africa and of mankind. 

Secretary of State Powell launched the CBFP at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg on September 4, 2002. Partners of the Congo 

Basin Forest Partnership include governments: United States, Cameroon, Central 

African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, France, Canada, South Africa, 

and European Commission. International organizations: World Bank, International 

Tropical Timber Organization, and World Conservation Union. Civil society: Jane 

Goodall Institute, the Center for International Forestry Research. The partnership 

will operate in an open and transparent manner. Participation and contributions to 

the CBFP are not limited to CBFP partners. Secretary Powell later traveled to 

Gabon for the inauguration of Gabon’s national park system, an historic first ever 

trip for the conservation of forests by a Secretary of State. 

The United States strongly promoted the Congo Basin Forest Partnership and intends to provide a significant contribution to this Partnership because these forests 

and their wildlife are truly of global significance, because these forests are a major 

factor in the social, economic and environmental health of our Congo basin country 

partners, and because there was already an impressive structure of cooperation between governments, NGOs and the private sector operating in the region on which 

this partnership could be built. 

The Partnership would not be a fact today without the strong support and commitment of the people and governments of our African Partners in the region. Civil 

society and private sector organizations have also been many more years working 

with each other and with these governments in an unprecedented way. Michael Fay, 

who will follow in testifying to your Subcommittee is well known to all in this room, 

has played a key role in highlighting for Americans and for the world the importance of conserving the outstanding wildlife and forests of the Congo Basin. His 

1200 mile Megatransect through two of the six countries captivated the imagination 

of many. Michael’s activities and speeches almost always produce concrete results. 

Just last week Michael spoke to 300 rapt elementary students at Arlington’s Science 

Focus School, leading to the establishment of their first Gorilla Wildlife Club. 

In broad terms, United States priorities for the Partnership are to provide people 

sustainable means of livelihood through well-managed forestry concessions, sustainable agriculture, and integrated ecotourism programs; to improve forest and natural 

resource governance through community-based management, combating illegal logging, and enforcing anti-poaching laws; and to help the Congo-basin countries develop a network of effectively managed parks, protected areas, and corridors. 

The United States’ contribution to achieving this will focus upon eleven key landscapes across the six Congo Basin countries, which include Cameroon, the Central 

African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and 

the Republic of Congo. We are committed to working with our partners in these 

countries, with the NGOs, with the private sector, civil society and others to help 

in the development of a network of effectively managed national parks, protected 

areas and corridors. We need this kind of new and innovative partnership to really 

have an impact—past efforts by NGOs alone, by donor assistance alone do not appear to make the kind of significant change we know is required. 

The Congo Basin Forest Partnership is based on the understanding that if we 

help people obtain sustainable forest-based livelihoods such as, for example, employment through ecotourism, wildlife law enforcement, reduced impact logging, park 

14

management in lieu of total dependence on exploitation of those same natural resource, that the overall economy will improve and the benefits of conservation will 

be apparent to all people in these countries moving towards real democracy. 

The United States has also committed to building and consolidating the international Congo Basin Forest Partnership. On January 23–24, we co-hosted with the 

French Government in Paris the first international meeting of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership. This was a very productive meeting attended by 120 representatives of the 30 partners—including 6 Ministers. France and our other partners supported the offer by the U.S. to facilitate a closer, collaborative working partnership 

between industry, NGOs, governments, and civil society. It was agreed that the U.S. 

will be the facilitator of the CBFP for at least the first two years of the Partnership 

and that in its facilitation role, the U.S. will be assisted by an African co-facilitator 

located in the Congo Basin. 

The Administration has committed to invest up to $53 million dollars in the 

Congo Basin Forest Partnership through the year 2005. Our commitment to the program is manifest in the move of CARPE headquarters just these past few months 

from Washington to its new regional headquarters in Kinshasa. The Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa), it should be noted, harbors over 50 percent of the Congo 

basin forests. We have already been told that the United States Government’s contributions are leveraging additional programs and contributions from other donor 

governments—we were informed that the EU was poised to close down its ECOFAC 

(Forest Ecosystems of Central Africa) program until it joined the Partnership—they 

are now planning a commitment of millions of dollars for Congo Basin Forests. 

United States-based environmental NGOs have affirmed plans to significantly expand their conservation programs in the eleven Congo basin forest landscapes that 

have been identified as critical to biodiversity conservation in the Congo basin. 

These NGOs have also committed to matching the United States Government’s contribution for work in the landscapes. I would like to recognize in particular the outstanding commitment of our Partners, including the Wildlife Conservation Society, 

the World Wildlife Fund, and Conservation International, as well as the World Resources Institute, Forest Trends, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Jane Goodall 

Institute. 

We are also pleased that forest industries—including our own American Forest 

and Paper Association (AF&PA) and professional societies such as the Society of 

American Foresters (SAF) will be bringing their technical expertise and their financial resources to assist the Congo basin countries in developing forest management 

capacity. AF&PA’s Henson Moore traveled to Johannesburg and gave an eloquent 

speech on AF&PA’s commitment to the CBFP, and in particular to their firm belief 

that addressing illegal logging and corruption can make a significant difference in 

this region. We are proud to have them as partners. Though we understand AF&PA 

does not have an economic stake in this region—it is committed to helping in the 

Congo Basin with technology transfer, education, and training on such issues as 

concession management, and reduced impact logging. 

In future months I will be working alongside Assistant Secretary of State Walter 

Kansteiner and USAID’s Assistant Administrator Connie Newman to provide strategic direction and oversight to the Partnership. I have personally discussed this initiative with Deputy Secretary of Agriculture James Moseley, Assistant Secretary for 

Interior for Fish, Wildlife and Parks Craig Manson and NASA Administrator Sean 

O’Keefe, who have all indicated a strong willingness to assist our initiative by tapping into the tremendous wealth of experience in sustainable natural resource management that is the heritage of the United States. 

Under our direction, one of the early tasks we are undertaking is a comprehensive 

inventory of forest and wildlife related programs and projects already underway or 

completed in the region. We know work is already being done—but this Partnership 

aims to understand these landscapes and move aggressively to reduce gaps and to 

avoid overlaps. We will be constructing a web page to link partners and their programs—including a comprehensive overview of the substantive programs and initiatives underway in the region. This will provide us a basis for looking at what is 

missing—and there is a great deal more we can do, with your help. 

Several weeks ago, the U.S. Department of State held a first-ever symposium on 

eco-tourism in the Congo basin which identified potential funding sources and issues 

critical to building up this important industry. Our commitment to work more closely not only with other international partners but among ourselves in the United 

States Government was reflected in the travel to the region last month of a joint 

needs assessment team headed by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Jeffry 

Burnam and Deputy Undersecretary of Natural Resources, USDA, David Tenney. 

This assessment also included senior representatives and technical experts from the 

15

Departments of State, Agriculture, and Interior including the U.S. Forest Service, 

the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Park Service. 

We firmly believe that U.S. contributions to the Congo Basin Forest Partnership 

will promote economic development, help to alleviate poverty, and improve local governance through natural resource conservation programs, a goal broadly shared by 

all the CBFP partners. We are also considering how this model might be extended 

to help our efforts in other geographic regions, particularly in the Amazon Basin. 

Along with our optimism that we are on the right track and have the commitments 

from partners to and developing resource base to make it work, it is clear that success will not be a simple task. As Secretary Powell said in Johannesburg: 

‘‘The road to sustainable development is a long one and a hard one. The Congo 

Basin Forest Partnership itself is the result of five years of hard work and commitment by devoted groups of individuals, governments and private organizations. They 

have only started it from different perspectives, all the partners arrived with a common vision for protecting the Congo basin, and just as important, all realizing that 

we must work together to be successful.’’

Thank you very much. I would be happy to answer any questions that you may 

have.

Mr. ROYCE. Thank you, Assistant Secretary Turner. 

We will go now to Assistant Administrator Constance Newman. 

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE CONSTANCE BERRY NEWMAN, ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR, BUREAU FOR AFRICA, 

U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 

Ms. NEWMAN. Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, I 

want to first thank you for inviting me to testify today. I am particularly pleased to join my colleagues from the Department of 

State because I think it is important for you to know of the close 

collaboration and the fact that it is real in developing this partnership. 

A key component of the Congo River Basin Partnership is the important work of the partners in the past, including Conservation 

International, Wildlife Conservation Society and the World Wildlife 

Fund. This has all been in the context of the Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment, known as CARPE, which was 

begun in 1995 with an annual budget of about $3 million. 

I am saying this because I want to have you understand the 

foundation upon which this partnership will be built. That program, CARPE, emphasized subject themes such as improving logging policy and practice, enhancing protected areas within lived-in 

landscape, encouraging better environmental governance and 

strengthening local resource management systems. 

These themes are supplemented by three cross-cutting areas, 

promoting monitoring processes, improving training and institutional strengthening, and ensuring donor coordination. It is essential to an effective partnership that there be a blending of the 

strengths of CARPE with the new emphasis of the partnership. 

This blending process has begun. Some of it is a little painful, but 

it has begun, and USAID’s new direction is that of moving CARPE 

from learning lessons to applying these lessons to action on the 

ground. 

The next implementation step will be a planning meeting scheduled for next week in Kinshasa. Subsequent to that meeting, the 

United States Government interagency group will meet in April to 

review the recommendations coming out of the Kinshasa meeting 

to set up a set of criteria for proposals, and we expect the proposals 

will be developed in May for ultimate review and decision making 

16

through a collaborative interagency process, funding expected in 

September. 

As we look to the future, we realize that there are special opportunities to address environmental issues in the 11 landscapes that 

will require major involvement of the people of the Congo River 

Basin. We intend to ensure that the focus will be on producing 

identifiable results within those landscapes, which will be tracked 

and reported directly to Congress. 

With the assistance of this Committee, the partnership has been 

provided a dramatic increase in resources for this most important 

project. For that we thank you. Furthermore, we thank you for 

drawing attention to this important Administration initiative. 

I look forward to taking your questions, or I will take your questions. I do not know if I look forward to it. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Newman follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE CONSTANCE BERRY NEWMAN, ASSISTANT

ADMINISTRATOR, BUREAU FOR AFRICA, U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOP- MENT

Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me to testify 

here today at this most important hearing on saving the Congo Basin. I am pleased 

to join my colleagues from the Department of State. It is important to note that 

USAID and the Department of State have been in close collaboration throughout the 

development of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP). We will continue to 

work together along with other US government agencies, African governments, and 

US and African conservation and business groups to ensure a strong partnership 

for the Congo Basin. We have great hopes for the future of the Congo Basin because 

in the words of Secretary of State Colin Powell:

[those] . . . in this partnership, have agreed to work together to help the 

countries of the Congo Basin create and manage protected forest areas, such as 

national parks. . . . [and] will work together to combat illegal logging and 

other unsustainable practices, and . . . implement programs to improve forest 

management and give people a stake in the preservation of the forest, by providing them with sustainable forest based livelihoods.

I would like to focus on three main areas: 1) USAID’s understanding of the Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE) as the foundation for 

a strong effective partnership; 2) a review of the development steps to date; and 3) 

an outline of the steps to come. 

CARPE AS THE FOUNDATION FOR THE FUTURE

I agree with my colleagues that the foundation for the future of the Congo River 

Basin is the extraordinary role played by Conservation International (CI), Wildlife 

Conservation Society (WCS), and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in focusing both 

public and private sector attention on the needs and opportunities of the environment in the Congo Basin. 

A key component of the CBFP is the past work of the partners in CARPE, one 

of USAID’s most prominent natural resource management programs in Africa. 

CARPE was launched in 1995 with the initial purpose ‘‘to identify and begin to establish the conditions and practices required for the conservation and sustainable 

use of the natural resources of the Congo Basin, in a manner which addresses local, 

national, regional and international concerns.’’ In so doing, CARPE helped to fill a 

major void by collecting important data on the Congo Basin. In recent years, 

CARPE has received annual USAID funding of $3 million to address environmental 

needs in nine countries. 

CARPE has been active at a time of intense interest in the rainforests of the 

Congo Basin. At the same time, the international community has become far more 

aware of its importance in a global context, whether by providing a potential source 

of forest products or absorbing carbon dioxide. Conservation efforts and scientific 

studies, partially supported by funds from CARPE, have opened a window into a 

part of the world previously very poorly understood. 

African governments, meanwhile, have become much more attentive to the forest; 

improving laws and institutions that manage it, and at the same time granting exVerDate Mar 21 2002 11:30 Apr 11, 2003 Jkt 085639 PO 00000 Frm 00020 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 F:\WORK\AFRICA\031103\85639 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL
17

1Landscapes are existing national parks and protected areas, buffer zones surrounding the 

parks and corridors connecting many of the parks to one another. 

tensive concessions to log it. This emphasis on logging has been a response both to 

dwindling oil revenues in central Africa and to increasing global demand for tropical 

timber. Those who live and derive their livelihoods from the forest are faced with 

increasingly difficult economic times, and have relied on the forest to deliver them 

more and more benefits in ways that may not be sustainable. 

A recent evaluation of CARPE released in February 2002 by the noted British organization, the Environment and Development Group, stated that:

It is a thoroughly worthwhile enterprise, well worthy of sustained US Government support. It is an attractive model in many respects, important among 

which is the dynamism and flexibility that the NGOs and academic institutions 

bring to the development process. That they are not encumbered by procedures, 

protocols and elaborate security protection makes them much more accessible 

to the civil society organizations in the countries whose forests they are aspiring 

to help conserve.

CARPE emphasizes four subject themes: 1) improving logging policy and practice; 

2) enhancing protected areas within a lived-in landscape; 1 3) encouraging better environmental governance; and 4) strengthening local resource management systems. 

These themes are in turn supplemented by three cross-cutting areas (promoting 

monitoring processes; improving training and institutional strengthening; and ensuring donor coordination). Generally, these themes have provided a sound framework for organizing the work of the partners. The results of the program are summarized in a loose-leaf document entitled, ‘‘Results and lessons learned from CARPE 

Phase I,’’ which we would be happy to provide to the Committee. 

Examples of the activities CARPE partners are engaged in are as follows: 

Improving logging policy 

• WCS has undertaken ground-breaking work in northern Republic of Congo 

(ROC) working closely with CIB (Congolaise Industrielle des Bois), a European logging company, to improve its practices. Collaboration between logging 

companies and NGOs is new in the area and is proving to be a promising 

partnership. 

Enhancing protected areas

• Protected areas have been the principal domain of WWF (in Central African 

Republic (CAR) and Gabon) and WCS (in ROC and Gabon). 

Promoting environmental education and environmental causes 

• The conservation community in the Basin has found a role in causes such as 

reducing bushmeat consumption, a practice that threatens species, disturbs 

ecosystems and spreads disease.

• Community management of local forests (once exclusive to the national government and well-placed expatriate logging firms) has attracted a 

groundswell of attention in Cameroon.

• These and other examples around the Congo Basin indicate that, despite a 

period of significant physical insecurity in the Basin (ROC, CAR, and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)), the people and their governments are concerned about the deterioration of their environment and want to take action. 

Encouraging local resource management 

• Local resource management systems have been addressed by a number of 

partners, most notably Innovative Resources Management in its work in 

Cameroon. This work has encouraged Africans to feel a sense of ‘‘ownership’’ 

of the forest. A number of small-grant holders have also done interesting and 

useful work, though all on a modest scale. 

Utilizing high-tech monitoring of the forest 

• Monitoring the forest through use of remote sensing techniques has been carried out and has generated productive collaboration between partners, as well 

as a good interchange between the US and field-based workers. It provides 

quantitative data capable of informing predictions and policy decisions. 

Bolstering capacity of local NGOs 

• CARPE has funded some excellent regional training initiatives, as well as 

funding capacity-building grants to local NGOs, which have displayed potenVerDate Mar 21 2002 11:30 Apr 11, 2003 Jkt 085639 PO 00000 Frm 00021 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 F:\WORK\AFRICA\031103\85639 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL
18

tial. These activities have mainly been in those countries where CARPE has 

a field presence.

In sum, CARPE and its partners have worked with great cost-efficiency to deliver 

a complex, flexible and imaginative contribution to forest conservation in the Congo 

basin. That work has served to assure us that the basis for this recent significant 

increase in funding is based on tested methods using reliable data and experienced 

partners and producing identifiable results. 

REVIEW OF THE DEVELOPMENT STEPS TO DATE

My colleagues have provided excellent overviews of how the CBFP has evolved 

since the announcement at World Summit on Sustainable Development in September 2002. I will provide an answer to the question of the integration of CARPE 

with the CBFP. 

It is essential to an effective partnership that there be a blending of the strengths 

of CARPE with the new emphases of CBFP. This blending has followed a number 

of steps: on October 16–17, consultations were held with the NGO community; on 

December 12, meetings were conducted with various USG agencies; and on January 

17, the new CARPE Strategic Objective was approved. This strategy highlighted the 

shifting focus of CARPE to incorporate the objectives of CBFP. 

Under the CBFP, which of course includes a number of different donors, NGOs 

and corporate groups, CARPE will be the primary USG vehicle in the delivery of 

services. At the same time, CARPE will continue to do work independently from the 

CBFP. In this way, the two entities will be attached to each other but not interchangeable. 

USAID’s new departure in this area emphasizes moving CARPE from ‘‘learning 

lessons’’ to applying these lessons to action on the ground. In order to facilitate this 

change in strategy, in January 2003, USAID relocated CARPE management from 

USAID headquarters in Washington to the Congo Basin (USAID/Kinshasa, DRC). 

We believe that this change will greatly strengthen our presence in the Basin, affording many more opportunities to interact with all partners in assessing and addressing problems and opportunities on the ground. 

NEXT STEPS

The next steps for implementation are already underway, with a planning meeting scheduled for next week in Kinshasa, DRC. Subsequent to that meeting the 

interagency group will meet in April to review recommendations emanating from 

the Kinshasa meeting and to develop a set of criteria for proposal submission. Proposals will then be developed in May by NGOs in collaboration, as appropriate, with 

USG agencies for ultimate review and decision-making through a collaborative 

interagency process. Funding for action on the ground in the Congo Basin will be 

made available to those organizations with successful proposals before the end of 

the current fiscal year. 

It is important to note that, consistent with USG practice, USAID will install a 

tracking system that will verify that the resources intended to be spent in the eleven landscapes selected under the CBFP really are so spent and that such results 

are equally identifiable, auditable and reportable. 

CONCLUSION

As we look to the future, we realize that there are special opportunities to address 

environmental issues in the eleven landscapes which will be the particular emphasis 

of USG resources within the CBFP. We intend to ensure that the focus will be on 

producing identifiable results within those landscapes which will be reported back 

to Congress. 

The priorities of the CBFP will be to:

• Encourage communities in the Congo Forest region to achieve a sustainable 

means of livelihood through well-managed forestry concessions, sustainable 

agriculture and integrated ecotourism programs;

• Help African countries develop a network of effectively managed national 

parks, protected areas and corridors; and

• Improve forest and natural resource governance by encouraging communitybased management, combating illegal logging and enforcing anti-poaching 

laws.

In addition, USAID will stress the importance of working with three African regional institutions. The USG, together with the partners in the CBFP, is now in a 

better position to support the aspirations of the African people in the region. WorkVerDate Mar 21 2002 11:30 Apr 11, 2003 Jkt 085639 PO 00000 Frm 00022 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 F:\WORK\AFRICA\031103\85639 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL
19

ing together we can all make a big difference on the wide range of problems threatening the environment in the Congo Basin. 

The USG proposed to invest up to $53 million over four years (2002–2005) including a $36 million increase for CARPE. Coordination of these resource flows from 

many sources is extremely important if efforts are to be most cost-effective; this includes filling critical gaps and leveraging local effort. The combination of the CBFP 

facilitation process and the field-based USAID CARPE management will afford us 

the best mechanism to ensure that the USG resources are serving the most critical 

needs and are efficiently and effectively being spent on achieving results. 

Thank you for supporting the Administration’s request and for your continued 

support of the Administration’s efforts to promote conservation and sustainable resource management in the Congo Basin. In order to ensure that the USG’s resources 

make a difference we must respect the fact that this effort depends upon the people 

living in the Congo Basin to achieve a lasting, positive impact on the second largest 

tropical rainforest in the world. We have every intention of making that a high priority. 

I thank the Committee for drawing attention to this important Administration initiative and I look forward to taking your questions.

Mr. ROYCE. That is very forthright of you, Constance. Thank you 

very much. 

Let me ask a few questions. I will start with Assistant Secretary 

Turner. Several Members of Congress have written Republic of 

Congo President Sassou-Nguesso asking for his cooperation on various environmental initiatives, including on the issue of trying to 

do something to combat the poaching of elephants. 

As far as I know, we have not received an answer. I was going 

to ask, Assistant Secretary Turner, is the Republic of Congo fully 

on board with this initiative, or are there areas of concern? 

Mr. TURNER. Mr. Chairman, I had the opportunity to meet with 

President Sassou and express the interest of the United States to 

help build capacity and governance to help bring training opportunities and capacity building to the Republic of the Congo. 

I think we have to note that that country committed itself to 

parks many years ago, so it is a challenge for the United States 

to work with that country to show that better practices are in the 

best interest of their economy, developing tourism and sustaining 

the wonderful wildlife and tourism opportunities. 

The minister for their parks and forestry is coming to Washington soon, Minister Djombo, and I hope to meet with him. We 

have had meetings in the past. We did have our interagency needs 

assessment team recently in Brazzaville to look at specific training 

and monitoring and accountability, so I think it is an opportunity 

for us to work positively with President Sassou and his administration. 

Mr. ROYCE. Well, we will look forward to conversing with you on 

that after that meeting takes place here. 

Another question I was going to ask you about was the debt for 

nature swaps that have declined. The Tropical Forest Conservation 

Act was supposed to be utilized for debt for nature swaps. 

We have not seen any of those in Africa, and I wonder if the 

Congo Basin Forest Partnership contains a debt for nature program, and is this act really a worthwhile tool for conservation or 

not? Should we be doing more in this area? I remember when it 

was first passed and first utilized we had high hopes there would 

be a tool to achieve a lot. 

Mr. TURNER. Mr. Chairman, the application of that act has been 

a priority of the President, and that is why we have asked for inVerDate Mar 21 2002 11:30 Apr 11, 2003 Jkt 085639 PO 00000 Frm 00023 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 F:\WORK\AFRICA\031103\85639 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL
20

creased authorization. It is my understanding that we have about 

$13 million that we have recently enacted, and it is our hope the 

discussions we are having now with at least four nations that we 

can authorize another $20 million soon. 

It is my understanding that that act will not apply very well in 

the Congo Basin because of the type of debt those countries have. 

Mr. ROYCE. I see. I think the $13 million you are speaking of is 

not actually on the African continent. I think it is, if I am not mistaken——

Mr. KANSTEINER. I believe that is correct, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. ROYCE. Yes. 

Mr. KANSTEINER. One reason we have a problem with it is the 

HIPC program basically takes care of the debt. That is, it does the 

debt reduction, so there is no real incentive for low-income African 

countries to do a debt for nature swap because they are going to 

get their debt forgiven anyway. 

The target countries that it would be particularly helpful for is 

the middle income African countries, those that are not eligible for 

HIPC. They want to do debt for equity or debt environmental 

swaps. We would love for the Legislative Branch to consider perhaps including middle income African countries as eligible for debt 

for nature swaps. 

Mr. ROYCE. Assistant Secretary Kansteiner, maybe the Committee and you and Mr. Turner can follow up on this afterwards 

with some discussions about the language that might be useful in 

that regard. 

Mr. KANSTEINER. Excellent. 

Mr. ROYCE. Also, Assistant Secretary Kansteiner, I was going to 

ask you about the situation in Equatorial Guinea. They have enjoyed a revenue bonanza, and I would like to ask about the challenge of conserving those forests and wildlife there. 

Is that country using its newfound oil wealth to increase conservation at all? 

Mr. KANSTEINER. I have not seen any signs of it, but I think that 

is one of the challenges that we in fact have in front of us. As we 

look to open up a new mission there, it will definitely be one of our 

priorities. 

Mr. ROYCE. If I were to ask you of the six countries in the Congo 

Basin, which has been the most committed to these conservation 

efforts so far? 

Mr. KANSTEINER. Well, I would love for John to chime in here 

too, but the one that is clearly most poised to be a full and complete and immediate partner is Gabon. 

The other five I think are all very eligible, and we are interested 

to engage all of them. Some are more ready to receive that partnership and do more with it than others, but it is really an open field, 

and we need to engage them all. 

Mr. ROYCE. Thank you. I was going to ask Constance a technical 

question, and that was what could be done to see that the bidding 

process for this Congo Basin Forest Partnership does not undermine the effective and cohesive efforts already underway by awarding fragmented grants? I was going to ask if this was a concern as 

this process unwinds. 

21

Ms. NEWMAN. Mr. Chairman, I think that the way that we have 

set this out, which is the workshop that I mentioned where many 

of the issues will be discussed by all of the potential partners and 

all of the players, and they will come back to this interagency 

group where we will set up the criteria. 

I think that there is a recognition that we are not to bog this 

down with bureaucratic processes on the one hand. On the other 

hand, we want to be certain that we get the best set of players, and 

we have a process which will allow us—it is called a Leader With 

Associates process—to bring some of the partners in in a quick 

process. 

I do not think that you should be concerned about the process, 

but we do want to have it designed in such a way that we build 

on those partners who are there now, but we leave it open to new 

groups that might have more to add to what is already there. 

Mr. ROYCE. I thank you, Assistant Administrator Newman. 

We are going to go to our Ranking Member, Congressman Don 

Payne of New Jersey, at this time. 

Mr. PAYNE. Thank you very much. 

Is it the goal, and anyone can try to answer this, of the fund to 

try to distribute the funds kind of equitably in each of the countries? 

It appears, and the reason I ask the question, that some sort of 

predesignation of a substantial portion of the fund would go to 

Gabon, and I am just wondering if that is true or why would that 

be the case. 

Ms. NEWMAN. I guess I do not feel comfortable yet that we know 

that. There will be these discussions going on in Kinshasa, which 

will set out what criteria should we be using, giving recommendations to the interagency group, and then proposals will come in 

around these landscapes. 

From my point of view, there is no predetermined identification 

of what resources will go to which landscapes. Therefore, it is not 

predetermined which countries will get more or less of these resources. 

Mr. PAYNE. Great. 

Mr. TURNER. Congressman, I think we are impressed with the 

leadership of President Bongo and his commitment, but, following 

up on what Connie said, all six nations in 1999 through the 

COMIFAC process committed themselves to foreign conservation, 

reducing illegal logging, protecting their reserves, protecting their 

wildlife. 

I hope this truly is going to work as a successful partnership 

where we will have a transparent process. The non-profit community has a very impressive record of success of conservation 

throughout the region, and I think we want to build on that success. 

A good example will be in the Virunga area, a trans boundary 

area rich in mountain gorillas, for 20 years was in the midst of war 

on the border of Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo and 

Rwanda. In that area, through local citizens and NGOs, the gorilla 

population was protected and even increased. So I think conservation is a way to go into areas that have been subject to violence 

and war, poverty and even corruption and build better bridges to 

22

the future. We are going to look for those opportunities throughout 

the region. 

Mr. PAYNE. Great. Ms. Newman, what about the Peace Corps? As 

this program is being developed, will there be moves to try to identify young people who may have expertise in conservation? 

I know you do have the World Wildlife Fund and Conservation 

International and the Wildlife Conservation Society all engaged 

and involved in the process, which is great, but do you see the 

Peace Corps having an increased involvement in this region? 

Ms. NEWMAN. Yes, Congressman Payne. They are already players with CARPE, and we do expect them to be very much involved. 

How it will play out we do not know yet, but we respect the treasure of the volunteers, and they certainly will have an opportunity 

to play a role. 

Mr. PAYNE. Secretary Turner, just finally, you have mentioned 

that the CBFP will operate in an open and transparent manner. 

More specifically, what are you relating to in that process? 

Mr. TURNER. What we have tried to do, as Administrator Newman pointed out, is create a process that has been open to all the 

partners. We had a meeting just over a week ago. The three of us 

chaired and met with all our non-profit partners to get their views 

on how we were doing on the process and what their priorities will 

be. 

We are in a dialogue with the countries involved, the needs assessment team that went over there from the United States. We 

are in contact with the other countries out of the region that are 

also going to be resources to this, so that communication on what 

roles different people are going to play and how we are going to allocate our resources, and then, thanks to the non-profit community 

first hosted by World Wildlife, 200 scientists identified the 10 priority landscapes that have the highest natural biodiversity and corridors for wildlife. 

Mr. PAYNE. Thank you very much. 

Mr. ROYCE. Thank you, Congressman Payne. 

Without objection, we will submit for the record testimony from 

the World Wildlife Fund. 

At this time we will go to our second panel. I thank each of you 

for testifying here today. [Pause.] 

This Committee will come to order, and we will now go to our 

second panel. 

Dr. Michael Fay is an ecologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society of New York, and he is a conservation fellow at the National 

Geographic Society. He has spent his life as a naturalist in the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Maine woods as a boy, in Alaska 

and Central America in college, and for the past 23 years in the 

central African forests. 

Fay received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1978 from the University of Arizona and then spent 6 years in the Peace Corps as 

a botanist in national parks in Tunisia and in the savannas of the 

Central African Republic. In 1984, he went to work at the Missouri 

Botanical Garden. His first assignment was a study of a mountain 

range on Sudan’s western border, eventually leading to his doctorate on the western lowland gorillas. 

23

Dr. Fay’s doctoral work was curtailed several times while he surveyed large forest blocks and worked to create parks in the Central 

African Public and Congo, parks that he later managed. In 1996, 

Fay flew a small airplane low over the forests of Congo and Gabon 

and observed a vast, intact forest corridor that spanned the two 

countries. 

From 1999 to 2000, he walked the entire corridor, more than 

1,800 miles, systematically surveying trees, wildlife and human impacts on uninhabited forest areas. Fay is now analyzing data from 

this expedition, which was funded by the National Geographic Society’s Expeditions Council and the Wildlife Conservation Society. 

This trek was a catalyst for Gabon’s landmark national park effort. 

Michael testified to this Subcommittee in March 1997 on a hearing, ‘‘Economic Development of Africa’s Natural Resources.’’ We are 

pleased to again have him with us. Michael is accompanied by a 

photographer, Michael ‘‘Nick’’ Nichols. Nichols is a staff photographer at National Geographic. He is the author of five books, the 

most recent being Brutal Kinship with Jane Goodall, a look at 

chimpanzees. Nichols spent 2 years documenting Mike Fay’s expedition across the Congo Basin. Nick will be showing some of his 

photographs of the Congo Basin on the monitors. 

Finally, I should mention that late last year when Michael had 

the misfortune of having a very dangerous run-in with an elephant 

in Gabon, I was traveling in Africa when I heard of his injury. 

Traveling with the delegation I was on was Lieutenant Colonel 

Burgess, a Navy physician and specialist in infectious diseases. We 

called Michael, and the doctor spent a good half an hour on the 

phone with him as he lay recovering in Gabon, making sure he was 

receiving the proper treatment. 

I would like to recognize Dr. Burgess, who is with us today, and 

thank him for all of his efforts on behalf of our country. Dr. Burgess, if you would stand. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause.] 

All right. We will go now to Dr. Michael Fay. 

STATEMENT OF J. MICHAEL FAY, Ph.D., ECOLOGIST WILDLIFE 

CONSERVATION SOCIETY 

Mr. FAY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank Chairman Ed Royce and Congressman Donald Payne for having us here 

today to talk about sustainable development in Africa and the 

Congo Basin Forest Partnership. 

I would also like to thank in particular Assistant Secretaries of 

State Kansteiner and Turner for their leadership in the Congo 

Basin Forest Partnership. Certainly I do not think if we had not 

been meeting, you know, kind of around town here over the last 

several months talking about the forests of Central Africa and the 

problems, the solutions, none of this would have ever happened, so 

I am really happy that we have folks like Mr. Kansteiner and 

Turner in office. 

I grew up in California. I was just out there a couple of days ago 

in the Sespe wilderness just behind Los Angeles there. When you 

are a little kid growing up, 6 years old, and you are right on the 

border of a national forest, you kind of recognize what smog is. 

Smog for a little kid is hard. Then you climb up about 6,000 feet 

24

right behind your house, and all of a sudden the air is clear. You 

are in this amazing wilderness for a small kid certainly. 

At the same time, I grew up in Mr. Payne’s neck of the woods 

in Summit, New Jersey. You know, if you kind of went east, that 

was the big city. If you went west, that was trout streams and nature, forests. You kind of wonder why this guy goes out and walks 

in the woods for a year and a half in Africa. I think it started when 

I was 6 years old. I just had been looking for wilderness ever since 

really. That is my explanation anyway, or my excuse. 

Certainly that childhood dream came true on that walk, and 

these images of Nick’s hopefully will kind of transport you to the 

kinds of things that still exist in Central Africa today. These are 

not pictures from places like the Serengeti or Kruger National Park 

that have been protected over the last 50 or 75 years. These are 

mainly places that are still wild, absolutely wild. Unfortunately, we 

cannot get the lights down because the images I think are very 

powerful. 

I am not going to repeat what the other panel members have 

said. They kind of used up my entire speech, I am afraid. I think 

some of them even plagiarized it, but that is all right. That is good. 

I think that, you know, over the last 23 years of living in the 

Congo Basin I have seen many large forest blocks be integrated 

into a process of development that I think can be vastly improved. 

It boils down to people looking to exploit resources. That is what 

it is about. It is often foreigners, and the resources are wood, minerals, oil and arable land. 

As we see in most frontier areas around the world, there is little 

regard for the environment, sustainability for local people, when 

that process occurs. It has happened worldwide, and it is happening kind of in the last pockets now in Africa and South America 

and a few other places, but there are not that many pockets left. 

In Central Africa, and I am not going to talk about the problems. 

We all know about the problems. We have heard about the problems. I do believe, though, that we cannot deal with those threats 

universally. You know, taking a shotgun approach to the problem 

of biodiversity, conservation and land use management cannot be 

universal. It has to be targeted, and I think we need to have a strategic approach. 

We have an historic opportunity in the Congo Basin today to create what will be one of the world’s most important national park 

systems of over 25 million acres in one of the richest areas for biodiversity on the planet, but we have an opportunity to do much 

more really. We have an opportunity to shift how entire landscapes 

are developed and to assure that future generations can sustain 

and enhance their lives. 

I often hear that protected areas work in the United States because we have wealth and health and peace and democracy and all 

of those things. In Africa, the logic goes where poverty, disease and 

war are more the norm, national parks really have no place in development. We hear that very often. 

I believe that Teddy Roosevelt had it right. In 1907, when the 

United States was at the stage in its development not dissimilar 

to the Congo Basin today, he said,

25

‘‘In utilizing and conserving natural resources of the nation, 

the one characteristic more essential than any other is foresight. The conservation of our natural resources and their 

proper use constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other problem of our national life.’’

President Roosevelt, with Congress, made the creation of 230 

million acres of protected areas the cornerstone of that foresight. 

I was just up there last weekend. One hundred years the Sespe has 

been there. It is still there, and it is still an intact ecosystem. 

Obviously there has been a lot of debate over the years, but that 

is what is good about conservation. It creates a debate. It creates 

a national ethos on land use and its management, resource management. I think that when you look at what Roosevelt did, that 

is what he did. He brought that debate to the United States, and 

it has been very important in every land use decision made in this 

country for over a century. 

My work in the Congo Basin has been basically to try to bring 

this U.S. model to Africa. People think well, you know, that is this, 

that is that, but I do not see that there is any great difference in 

the United States’ development over the last 150 years and what 

is currently happening in Africa almost throughout—resource exploitation, people occupying the landscape. That is what is happening everywhere. 

The model starts with the identification of large landscapes 

where land use management systems can be put in place before the 

arrival of industrial resource use and human expansion. This 

model does not call for the curtailment of resource use, only for 

well-reasoned land use and resource management. 

It requires, I think, a ground up plan that includes the creation 

and management of core national parks to protect the biodiversity 

mother lode, integrated with land use management in exploitation 

zones in the surrounding landscapes that maximizes benefits for 

local people. 

We find that parks quickly become national treasures, but they 

also become the cornerstones in a process where logging companies 

and other resource users change wasteful practices, local people 

change land use practices, and governments change policies. Other 

development objectives that help people like poverty alleviation, 

health, education and private investment are also facilitated in 

these landscapes. It goes right up to the national level. That debate 

begins when this model is applied. 

There are currently many organizations, American and European, working with national governments on projects in various 

stages of this landscape model, implementing this landscape model, 

places like Odzala, Nouabale-Ndoki, Minkebe, Lope, Loango and 

many others. These initiatives have strong national support, and 

many U.S. and international organizations are working very hard 

with national governments to make these happen. 

The CBFP. Again, due to the leadership of Mr. Kansteiner, Mr. 

Turner, Ms. Newman, we have seen this thing evolve over the last 

8 months or so, and now we have something we can call the Congo 

Basin Forest Partnership. For me, essentially what it is is 11 landscapes that are kind of the best of the best where we have the best 

opportunity to bring this model to bear and where we have the best 

26

opportunity to for the money we spend shift or create this national 

debate that will go right up to the national level. 

As for results, we have talked about it. It has been talked about 

here several times this morning. The decision of the Government 

of Gabon and President Omar Bongo to implement a plan to create 

13 national parks was not something that we can take lightly. It 

was a very important, dramatic and risky move. I think that the 

Gabonese have demonstrated great leadership, and I think that the 

government and the President are to be commended for creating 13 

national parks covering 7.5 million acres. 

These are not any 7.5 million acres. These are 13 areas in Gabon 

that have been determined to be the richest and the most intact 

ecosystems in that country. They are also distributed throughout 

the country where you can see 13 kind of poles starting to develop 

over time with this conservation debate in mind. It will transform 

the way Gabon develops over time. There is no doubt about that. 

Obviously the work has just begun, and we cannot fail in our 

commitment to help Gabon to build infrastructure and capacity for 

management, help change land use practices and increase benefits 

for local people. Obviously we need to work with all countries in 

the Congo Basin. There is no doubt about that. What this partnership can do is launch that debate in each of these countries in a 

very effective way, and I think that we can expect results in one 

and every country in the Basin. 

What should we expect as deliverables from the Congo Basin 

Forest Partnership over the next 10 years? I think we should expect 25 million of permanent national parks in six Congo Basin 

countries, some 27 functional national parks with infrastructure, 

management personnel and a permanent place in the landscape, 

some 50 million acres of managed logging concessions and other 

land surrounding these parks, over 1,000 people working in natural 

resource conservation, 300 villages in and around the landscapes 

participating actively and benefitting from resource management, 

increased sustainability for parks from tourism and other revenue 

streams and some $60 million in private funds as a match to U.S. 

Government investment. 

What I would like to ask you today, because in any process the 

fine-tuning is very important. There is no doubt about that. We can 

have something on track for a very long time, and we can see it 

all of a sudden slip away. If I can help it, I will certainly try to 

influence it from my perspective, keeping it on the straight and 

narrow. 

I think that the appropriation of $12 million a year for the CBFP 

and $3 million for CARPE should be funded for a period of 10 

years. I think that these funds should be allocated to U.S. NGO 

partners, the Congo Basin Forest Partnership, coupled with substantial diplomatic and technical assistance provided by the Departments of State, Agriculture and Interior. 

I think we should require matching funds of NGOs who receive 

grants from USAID. I think we should restrict U.S. Government 

funding to on-the-ground conservation that directly supports protected area and land use management projects in the 11 designated 

landscapes to avoid expensive and ineffectual top down programs. 

27

Congo Basin countries benefitting from the CBFP should agree 

to address a number of objective deliverables. Funding should be 

dependent on progress such that countries that take risks to enact 

such a process also reap the maximum benefits. I do not think that 

USAID should use a competitive bidding process between partners 

to fund disparate actions, but rather a collaborative process that 

will result in a comprehensive program for the 11 landscapes. 

I do not think that Teddy Roosevelt could have ever imagined 

that over 300 million people would enter the national parks of the 

United States back in 1907. I think that that is a real tribute to 

his vision. I believe that if we get it right, the CBFP will be one 

of the most successful programs ever undertaken by USAID in our 

search for a model for sustainable development. Land use and resource conservation must be at the core. I urge you to support this 

program. 

Thank you very much. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Fay follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF J. MICHAEL FAY, PH.D., ECOLOGIST WILDLIFE

CONSERVATION SOCIETY

THE CONGO BASIN FOREST PARTNERSHIP: ‘‘CONSERVATION AS A DEVELOPMENT FUNDAMENTAL FOR COUNTRIES THAT DEPEND ON THE EXPORT OF NATURAL RESOURCES’’

‘‘Thank you Mr. Chairman. I wish to commend Chairman Ed Royce, Congressman 

Donald Payne and the Members of this distinguished Subcommittee for focusing 

today on the critical issue of sustainable development in Africa and how the Congo 

Basin Forest Partnership can address the goals of this important principle. 

The Congo Basin holds the second largest expanse of old growth tropical forest 

on the planet, nearly seven times the size of California. These forest ecosystems are 

under threat from a front of industrialized natural resource exploitation and human 

population expansion from the west and the east. The resources that are being 

sought are wood, minerals, oil, and arable land. As witnessed in most frontier areas 

opened for resource use, there is little regard for the environment, sustainability, 

or for local people. Logging is a major threat to landscapes in the Congo Basin 

where logging concessions cover over 60% of the forests. In the past two decades 

we have seen unprecedented exploitation of these forests by foreign industrial logging companies. Vast areas of wilderness are opened for logging. Over 1⁄2 of the 

wood that is cut down for lumber is abandoned or burned, wildlife populations are 

so reduced that they collapse, and local human populations are impoverished. Yet 

my long walk that took me from the Oubangui to the Atlantic, 3000 km, showed 

that there remain vast areas in the Congo Basin that are still intact. 

We have a historic opportunity in the Congo Basin today to create what will be 

one of the world’s most important national park systems of over 25 million acres 

in one of the richest areas in terms of biodiversity. These parks will preserve, just 

as Yosemite and Yellowstone have for well over a century in this country, the 

wealth of major ecosystems in these forests. But, we have the opportunity to do 

much more. We have an opportunity to shift how entire landscapes are developed 

to assure that future generations can sustain and enhance their lives. 

I often hear that protected areas work in the United States because we have 

wealth, health, peace and democracy. In Africa, the logic goes, where poverty, disease, and war are the norm, national parks have no place in development. 

I believe that Teddy Roosevelt had it right. His thought was if young nations that 

depend on natural resources for their livelihoods do not put natural resource conservation and management at the forefront of development policy then all other aspirations of these nations will falter. 

In 1907, when the United States was at a stage in its development not dissimilar 

to the Congo Basin today, President Roosevelt said:

‘‘In utilizing and conserving the natural resources of the Nation, the one characteristic more essential than any other is foresight. . . . The conservation of our 

natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental problem 

which underlies almost every other problem of our national life.’’

28

President Roosevelt, with the US Congress, made the creation of 230,000,000 

acres of protected areas in 18 national monuments, 5 national parks, 51 wildlife refuges and 150 national forests the cornerstone of this foresight. More importantly, 

what this leadership did, was to fully integrate natural resource stewardship into 

a basic principle of our national policies and ethos. It is always a debate, but it is 

a debate that has been part of every land-use decision made in this country for a 

century. 

I have been working on the ground in the forests of the Congo Basin for the past 

23 years using this simple model that comes from the United States. It is a transformative model that seeks to integrate natural resource management into the foundation of development. The model starts with the identification of large landscapes 

where land-use management systems can be put in place before the arrival of industrial resource use and human expansion. This model does not call for the curtailment of resource use, only for well-reasoned land-use and resource management. It 

requires a ground-up plan that includes the creation and management of core national parks to protect the ‘‘biodiversity mother load,’’ and land-use management in 

exploitation zones in the surrounding landscapes that maximize benefits for local 

people. Over the past two decades, in many landscapes, it has been shown that this 

model sets the stage for a transformative process for land-use and the resulting 

human condition. It also helps start a national debate at all levels of society from 

hunters and gatherers right up to senior decision makers in government on resource 

use. Investments in sustainable systems pay high dividends. We find that parks do become national treasures. They also become the cornerstones in a process where logging companies and other natural resource extractors change their wasteful practices, local people change land-use practices, and governments change policies. 

Other development objectives for local populations like poverty alleviation; health, 

education, private investment, human rights and the democratic process are also facilitated in these landscapes. How can these programs affect other priorities of the 

US Government in Africa such as AIDS/HIV, good governance, conflict resolution 

and private investment? 

Two examples. As part of our model we put in place management programs in 

the logging concessions surrounding parks. These programs work closely with logging company employees to reduce bushmeat exploitation, limit human settlement 

in the permanent forest domain, eliminate illegal and wasteful practices, and improve livelihoods for local people. In these programs we hold extensive meetings and 

negotiations with workers, and we have education and health programs. AIDS/HIV 

is well known to travel in worker populations and along commercial transport 

routes and certainly we have seen the rates in these frontier areas increase dramatically in the past 10 years. If in logging management programs we added elements that target the spread of AIDS in clear and objective terms, this would certainly slow the rate of infection in logging camps. Integrating reduction of AIDS/

HIV in the majority of logging concessions in the Congo Basin in short order is possible. This would not only be a cost effective way to spend AIDS/HIV funds but 

these programs would logically fit into a coherent whole. 

We speak of good governance, conflict resolution and private investment. At the 

beginning of the violent civil war in the Republic of Congo in 1997–1998, we decided 

to stay put in the Nouabale-Ndoki National Park, as did the loggers we worked 

within surrounding concessions. We weathered the fronts, and maintained infrastructure, security, and personnel over more than 3 million acres. Negotiations were 

held with the then rebels and no pillaging or killing occurred. When the war was 

over, there was nothing to rebuild, no bitter animosity and no degradation to the 

natural resource base. This was in large part due to the presence of conservation 

personnel and logging operators, and local people who collaborated on the ground. 

If we linked the conservation community consistently with peace-keeping and relief 

communities, we would have a better chance of mitigating catastrophes like we have 

seen in Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

Over the past 20 years, a number of US NGOs in association with the US Government have gained considerable experience in projects that change the course of natural resource management and development in large landscapes in Congo Basin 

countries. 

An example: 

In 1985, an idea to create a large, tri-national forest management area in the 

Central African Republic (CAR), Congo, and Cameroon was born by Richard Carroll 

and myself. The objective was to create three national parks and management systems in the landscapes around the parks, in particular in logging concessions where 

there was no history of land-use management. This initiative grew, and by the year 

2000, with funding from USAID, GEF, ITTO, GTZ, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the 

29

Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and other private investment, we had the following outputs:

• 350,000 acre Dzanga-Sangha National Park in CAR

• 1,000,000 acre Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in Congo,

• 600,000 acre Lac Lobeke National Park in Cameroon,

• Significant, permanent management infrastructure in seven main camps,

• A large force (>350) of trained local and government management personnel,

• Wildlife management implemented with villages surrounding the parks,

• Forestry management projects with logging companies covering ca. 4,000,000 

acres.

• Declaration of the first trans-border reserve to be created by three national 

governments.

The benefits go far beyond the local impacts, they are:

• Vastly improved forest management capacity at a national level in three 

countries,

• Significantly increased national contribution to operations,

• Shift in the logging industry from pure exploitation to the notion of management in logged forests,

• Shift in land-use practices of local people,

• Shift in government policies and laws governing forest management.

How do we propose to replicate this model elsewhere and how much is it going 

to cost? 

There are currently many organizations, American and European, working with 

national governments on projects that seek to implement the landscape model in 

places like Odzala, Nouabale-Ndoki, Minkebe, Lope, Loango and many others. These 

initiatives have strong national government support and the three major US conservation NGOs working on the ground in the Congo Basin (WWF, WCS and Conservation International) are united in the belief that these ground-up projects 

should be the basis for sustainable development. 

The Congo Basin Forest Partnership 

Some months ago a number of NGOs, the US State Dept. and USAID developed 

a plan that is now called the Congo Basin Forest Partnership. This plan calls to 

extend an existing USAID project, called the Central African Regional Program for 

the Environment (CARPE), which has been learning about resource management in 

the Congo Basin for seven years. The new plan shifts the focus to the ground, starting with a network of national parks in six Congo Basin countries that would span 

out to logging concessions, other resource extraction zones and local communities in 

geographical landscapes. This plan would attempt to get all regional governments 

on board, expand the number of NGO partners, and increase assistance from several 

Departments of the US Government. 

In more formal meetings with USAID the logic of the landscape concept was understood but the questions were: how much is it going to cost and how were we 

going to pull it off? In particular how could we be assured there was the political 

will to create parks and manage forests in Congo Basin countries? I estimated, if 

we included 11 endangered landscapes in six countries, that we would need 15 million dollars a year from USAID. Other international partners, American NGOs and 

national governments would match this. 

As to results, I am happy to report today that before we have spent a dime of 

CBFP money we have had considerable success. Over the past several months 

NGOs, the State Department, and Members of the US Congress have been working 

with the Government of the Republic of Gabon and His Excellency, El Hadj Omar 

Bongo. We worked on implementing a plan to create 13 national parks. 

These parks would be the foundation for a new approach to development for 

Gabon, based on conserving nature, rational resource use and maximizing benefits 

for local human populations. These ideas have been embraced by the Gabonese Government and in short order we have seen historic action on their part with the signature of 13 national park ‘‘decrets’’ protecting 10.8% of the country, over 7.5 million 

acres. 

Secretary of State Powell applauded this action when I was privileged to take him 

on a walk in the coastal forests of Gabon last September. Secretary Powell strongly 

endorsed this plan in meeting with President Bongo and has committed significant 

resources for that purpose. These acts are having dramatic impacts. Logging compaVerDate Mar 21 2002 11:30 Apr 11, 2003 Jkt 085639 PO 00000 Frm 00033 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 F:\WORK\AFRICA\031103\85639 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL
30

nies were upset at first but they are already calling for joint management projects 

on the periphery of these parks. Private investment in ecotourism has begun, and 

other partners are consolidating and augmenting their conservation efforts. More 

importantly the national debate in Gabon is now centered around the use and conservation of natural resources and how local people benefit. There are those who oppose conservation but the majority supports this plan. 

In order for this action to become permanent we cannot fail in our commitment 

to help Gabon put in infrastructure and management systems in parks, work to 

build capacity for management, work closely with logging companies in management 

programs, help change land-use practices, and improve the benefits for local people. 

The strategic objective for the CBFP has been approved by USAID. The planned 

results for the project are solid and follow the logic. The some thirty partners, which 

include all concerned Congo Basin Countries, several European Countries including 

France and Germany, the EU, Canada and South Africa, many international NGOs 

and international organizations, are talking and making plans for collaboration and 

coordination. 

What do we expect as deliverables from the Congo Basin Forest Partnership over 

the next ten years?

• over 25 million acres of permanent national parks in six Congo Basin countries,

• over 20 functional national parks with infrastructure, management personnel 

and a permanent place in the national landscape.

• over 50 million acres of managed logging concessions and other lands surrounding protected areas,

• over 1000 personnel working in natural resource management in the Basin,

• over 300 villages in and around the landscapes participating actively in and 

benefiting from resource management,

• a significant and vibrant eco-tourism industry established,

• increased sustainability from tourism and other revenue streams, and national government participation,

• $60 million dollars in private funds as a match to US Govt. investment.

The fundamental benefits of this project will be:

• reductions of illegal and abusive logging practices,

• reductions in illegal trade and corruption,

• reduced rates of deforestation and biodiversity loss,

• increased civil society participation in decision making,

• creation of viable and operational national reserve systems,

• increased U.S. influence in the Congo Basin.

• better governance and transparency.

• increased security over large areas.

• reduction of increase in levels of communicable diseases.

• sustainable development based on renewable outputs.

What I ask of Congress today is to assure the following:

1) Appropriation of $15 million a year for the CBFP program to be funded for 

a period of ten years.

2) Funds allocated exclusively to US NGO partners of the Congo Basin Forest 

Partnership with substantial diplomatic and technical assistance provided by 

the Departments of State, Agriculture and Interior.

3) Matching funds be required of NGOs who receive a grant from USAID for 

these activities.

4) US Government funding should be restricted to on-the-ground conservation 

that directly supports protected area and land-use management projects in 

the 11 designated landscapes such that we avoid top down, expensive and 

ineffective programs.

5) Nations benefiting from the CBFP should agree to address a number of objective deliverables that are judged to be essential to the program.

6) Funding should be dependant on progress such that nations who take the 

risks to enact such a process also reap the maximum benefits.

7) USAID should not use a competitive bidding process between partners to 

fund disparate actions, but rather a collaborative process that will result in 

31

a comprehensive program for the 11 landscapes that demonstrates buy-in 

from partners and a clear ground-up approach.

I don’t think that Teddy Roosevelt could have ever imagined that over 300 million 

people would enter the national parks in the United States in 2003. This is a tribute 

to his vision. I believe that, if we get it right, the CBFP will be one of the most 

successful programs ever undertaken by USAID in our search for a model of sustainable development. Land-use and resource management must be at the core. 

Please support this program. 

Thank you.’’

Mr. ROYCE. Thank you, Dr. Fay. 

You have given us our objectives for the program we are going 

to support. Why do you not share with us what the consequences 

will be if we are not successful, if we are not successful in a partnership which stems the clear cutting of these forests? What is the 

worst case scenario? 

Mr. FAY. Well, I think if you look at situations where resource 

use is not managed, where people can take what they need or what 

they think they need in an uncontrolled situation, eventually the 

masses suffer. Eventually ecosystems collapse. Streams stop flowing, forests stop producing, and ultimately the result has been 

short-term gain and long-term loss. 

If we look at what has been happening in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo over the past several years now, I think that if we 

could have looked back 30 years, 40 years into the history and said, 

you know, if we had taken a different track on resource conservation and instilling that ethos of resource conservation in the populations that live in those landscapes, I think you may have had a 

very different result there. It is hard to predict, but certainly the 

result that we have now is not that great. 

I think that if you look at eastern Democratic Republic of the 

Congo now when you get about 150 kilometers from the Rift Valley 

all you see is a sea of agriculture and cultivation and humanity. 

There is no nature left. Certainly those populations are now suffering. 

I think that again it is hard to predict what the result would be, 

but if you look at the United States back in—take California back 

in 1870 when people started to think about creating national parks 

and national forests and protecting watersheds. You know, that has 

obviously had a very dramatic and important impact on the present 

day state of California’s ability to sustain human life. 

I think that that is true anywhere on the planet, so I really believe that that is something we need to think about. 

Mr. ROYCE. Six years ago, you testified before our Subcommittee. 

At that point, we were just beginning to see the South Asian logging companies coming in to Sub-Saharan Africa, and we were 

talking about how the practices being used by some companies 

were particularly environmentally unfriendly. 

In that ensuing 6 years, do you have any observations about 

which companies have been the worst, or have any followed, tried 

to follow environmentally friendly policies? To that extent, have 

they replanted? What are some of the experiences on the ground 

there? 

Mr. FAY. Certainly in the concessions where conservationists 

have been working hand-in-hand with logging companies over the 

past 5 or 6 years, we have seen dramatic changes not only in 

32

bushmeat hunting and logging practices, but we have also seen a 

whole shift again in the mentality of people living in these concessions. 

People start to think about resource management. They start to 

think about allowing a certain group of people to hunt all of the 

wildlife for their own benefit. We see discussions about, you know, 

the future of these forests, the management of these forests. 

You know, we are looking at forest inventories in many of the 

concessions now that are bringing us to a new kind of era I would 

say in forest management in Central Africa. These are concessions 

that are consolidated, and they have a long-term management plan 

associated with them. 

We are too young in the process now to really know if those management plans have anything to do with reality because a lot of 

them are based on 25 year kind of rotations. You know, you cannot 

even put a Loblolly pine plantation on a 25 year rotation, so there 

are obviously still some very large problems with those ideas, but 

at least now we are talking about it, and the debate has begun. 

I think that there are two main problems that I see right now, 

which is the new fiscal regimes that are being put in place in collaboration with the World Bank in Central Africa from my point 

of view, and I have talked to many loggers about this, seem to 

favor the small, rapid-fire concessionaires rather than large, management oriented concessionaires because the new surface area 

taxes that have started to come into being tax people equally for 

tracts of land that they hold, so they do not really take into account 

the rotation of that forest, so I think that people who hold onto forests longer, who are more interested in management, are suffering 

under that regime; at least that is my understanding from the logging companies’ executives that I have talked to. 

The second thing that is happening is community forestry has 

become law in many countries. For instance, in Gabon with the 

new forestry law a village or a population of people can claim a certain area of forests to be managed by themselves and to be exploited by themselves. 

I think, you know, again within the context of this CBFP if we 

can shift as much as we possibly can, and there are obviously realities that you have to deal with in this process, but if you can shift 

resource exploitation as close to the source as possible the benefits 

for local people increase pretty dramatically. 

If you are the guy with the chainsaw in a village and you cut 

down a big mahogany tree, you are probably going to get a couple 

thousand bucks out of that tree. If you are sitting in a village 

watching someone else cut it, you are probably not going to get 

anything. 

I think that that holds for many other resources—gold, coltan, 

many of those things that are currently being exploited. If we can 

bring community management forward, but in a modern way, I 

think that that will be a very powerful way to shift the balance. 

Mr. ROYCE. And you want to work on changing the criteria at the 

World Bank in terms of how that assessment is done? 

Mr. FAY. I think that fiscality should be looked at, and people 

should take a realistic view of what is happening on the ground 

and the result of fiscal changes that are made. 

33

I also think that people should start looking at the true sustainability of what they are talking about when they put in rotations 

of 25 years. I think that people need to start thinking about the 

biological reality of the forest rather than the kind of short-term 

economic reality that they are dealing with. 

Mr. ROYCE. Lastly, on the phenomenon of the empty forest and 

what has happened with respect to the bushmeat trade, would you 

like to share with us some of your observations? I know that you 

have trekked in areas and reported about what has happened as 

a consequence of civil war in the Congo, whole areas completely depopulated of wildlife. 

Mr. FAY. Yes. Again, it gets us right back to United States of 

America, 1900. We went from some 17 million by some estimates, 

and it could have been a lot more than that, white tailed deer to 

an estimated 300,000 white tailed deer in this country in 1900. It 

was conservation efforts. It was that kind of Roosevelt era consciousness raising that brought wildlife management to a higher 

level in this country. 

I think that if you are dealing with a logging concession that has 

absolutely no education about wildlife population, if workers are 

paid in shotgun shells and Caraby shells, obviously you can improve that situation dramatically. We have seen that within a year 

or two in large logging concessions we can completely flip-flop that 

situation. 

So I think that, you know, you can call it bushmeat. You can call 

it unsustainable hunting. You can call it whatever you want, but 

basically what we are dealing with is people are killing too much 

wildlife in frontier areas and in logging concessions, and again it 

demands this comprehensive management approach. 

Mr. ROYCE. We are going to go to our Ranking Member, Don 

Payne from New Jersey. 

Mr. PAYNE. Thank you very much. 

I have been listening to you and do recall 6 years ago when we 

had you here. Of course, being from New Jersey, Summit was still 

a nice area. As a matter of fact, we were running into a number 

of problems in New Jersey in relation to conservation. We were 

being overrun by the black bears. They are almost coming down 

into real urban areas now, and it is become a debate in the legislature. 

People are getting ready to run on the bear issue, you know. Not 

the bear market, but the bear bear. They are getting a little bit 

smarter. They know almost where refrigerators are, you know. 

They get into kitchens. They are pretty smart. Unfortunately, there 

is talk of having a hunting season to try to pare down the numbers. 

They have really overrun. 

Our eagles too. The eagles have really soared in New Jersey. 

Years ago I worked when I was in college as a camp counselor at 

an eagles nest farm on the Delaware water gap. As you know, the 

DDT took away a lot of the eagles, but now the eagle population 

has just grown phenomenally. As a matter of fact, people are worrying about their little kittens and poodles, you know. The eagles 

are running out of real prey, so people are keeping their small pets 

in the house because the eagle will come down and sometimes 

swoop away a little dog or something. 

34

Deer? We do not even want to talk about deer. They are just everywhere, but I am glad that you did have an opportunity to go to 

do what you have done. It is really commendable. 

Also, you know, we in New Jersey had the first park commission 

in the country. In 1897, Essex County started a park commission, 

so we were pretty forward thinking. I was a member when I was 

in county government, a member of the park commission. We always talked about the first park commission in the country. 

Getting back to Africa, you know, you need to stay away from 

elephants. Get close to the donkeys, they do not hurt you. 

Is there much reforestation going on? You talked about kind of 

the way the logging was done, but is there any, in your estimation, 

real kind of plan, or is that what the future might hold of just trying to reforest? 

I know that takes a long time. You are talking about the short 

term versus the long term, but are any of the logging companies 

getting involved in that? 

Mr. FAY. Yes. Several companies have what we would call enrichment programs that they have initiated, but these are very experimental. 

What we have to realize is that if a logging company in Central 

Africa is going to cut 100,000 cubic meters of wood in a year, they 

are going to eat up about 25,000 acres of forest, so for them to economically be able to enrich that forest after they have gone 

through, and believe you me they do a heck of a lot of damage 

when they go through. 

Mr. PAYNE. Yes. 

Mr. FAY. It is unbelievable what they do. To be able to enrich 

that forest, even if it worked, and we do not even know if it works, 

would be prohibitively expensive. 

I think that again what we need to think about is kind of a 

doughnut with various rings. We have solidly protected areas as 

wilderness. Then we have a permanent forest around those parks 

that is managed for sustainable production of wood, and then beyond that you have more the agricultural land where people cultivate. Those lands are usually more appropriate, valley bottoms, 

et cetera. 

I think that, you know, when you look at forest management in 

Central Africa for the next 25 or 50 years possibly—at least 25 

years—it is going to be more of an extensive kind of management. 

It is going to be to go in, you take the mother lode out—that is 

what they always do, the mahogany, the oak, all the big, one meter 

diameter trees. They are all gone on the first cut. Anything worth 

money is gone on the first cut. 

The second cut becomes much more problematic because you are 

dealing with much smaller diameters, wood that is hard to sell, so 

you end up with a process that as time goes on those species get 

into the market as the primary forests diminish, and you just see 

smaller and smaller trees being exploited. The grading of the forest 

is getting more and more radical. 

I think that again we have to get back to rotations. You know, 

how long do they need to be to be able to come up with good populations of trees that can be exploited in an economic way? We have 

to look at the fiscality issues such that we might say, you know, 

35

do we have to put all of the mahogany on the market at the same 

time? 

If you look at the way companies operate now, they are right 

there between red and black, but that is where the market puts 

them every single time. The last 23 years I have been in Africa, 

every time you talk to loggers they are right there between the red 

and the black. 

I think that it makes rare resources look abundant because they 

just cut them down as fast as they can because they need to 

produce more to make any money. It is this vicious cycle. I think 

fiscality needs to be looked at and also biological rotations. 

Mr. PAYNE. Thank you very much. Just a final question. Has the 

European Union discussed the matter? A number of years ago I 

know, for example, it was alleged that Taylor was selling much of 

his timber to one of the European countries. I mean, most of it goes 

there, but have they had any discussion in EU about this whole 

question of logging and so forth? 

Mr. FAY. Yes. Certainly the French had been very active, and 

they have been supporting many of these forest replanting activities. They are providing loans and also gifts to logging companies 

to undertake these planting exercises. 

The Belgians, the EU itself, they have all started to kind of recognize that forests need to be managed. We are going to eventually 

get to the end point of primary resource, of the frontier, and we 

need to start thinking about that, so yes. 

When you look at markets and how markets have changed over 

the last 20 some years in Europe, in the United States, in Asia, 

certification really has not happened for tropical forests yet, and 

until there is some way to influence those markets I think that the 

current trends that we are seeing are just going to continue. 

Management planning is a great thing, but management is a different thing, and that is where we have to go now. We have to go 

from management planning to management. It gets us right back 

to CBFP again. You do not say okay, guys, we need to save everything. You say we need to have a land use management plan. That 

is what we need. 

We need to have protected areas, we need to have permanent forest, and we need to have places where people live. That is a modern structure that we see everywhere on the planet, and it is due 

to humans occupying that landscape. 

I really believe that, you know, I go around every issue that I 

can think of in forest conservation, and it brings us back to this 

model. It brings us back to the CBFP. Again, I really think that 

if we give this model a chance we will see that it will transform 

the way resource exploitation unfolds in Central Africa. 

Mr. PAYNE. Thank you very much. 

Mr. ROYCE. Thank you, Congressman Payne. 

Thank you very much, Dr. Michael Fay, for being with us. Thank 

you to National Geographic for their contribution in the Congo 

Basin Forest Partnership. 

We will be continuing to work with you as we go forward. 

Thanks so much for your testimony today. 

Mr. FAY. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Payne. 

Mr. ROYCE. This hearing is adjourned. 

36

[Whereupon, at 4:10 p.m. the Subcommittee was adjourned.] 

(37)

A P P E N D I X 

MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING RECORD

PREPARED STATEMENT OF DR. RICHARD W. CARROLL, DIRECTOR OF AFRICA AND

MADAGASCAR, ENDANGERED SPACES PROGRAM, WORLD WILDLIFE FUND

SAVING THE CONGO BASIN: THE STAKES, THE PLAN

It is in the United States government interest to ensure an equitable, although 

perhaps not an even, allocation of CBFP funds between the Congo Basin countries, 

signatories of the Yaounde ́ Declaration, as a way to provide concrete incentive for 

their continuous commitment to the Declaration. The initial intention of the NGO 

consortium comprising the Conservation International (CI), the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), in submitting their proposal to the US Government within the framework of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership, was to mobilize funding to support conservation efforts within 11 landscapes throughout the Basin. 

The US government funds should be invested where they would have a real impact on conservation delivery, and therefore CI, WCS and WWF–US suggested the 

following guiding principles for fund allocation:

— conservation needs within the landscapes. The CARPE planning workshop 

of March 17–19 in Kinshasa should enable CARPE partners to identify these 

needs. These needs will vary across the 11 landscapes;

— comparative advantage of USG’s investment in leveraging on-going or future 

investments from other actors in the region;

— ability of national conservation actors to partner with. A special emphasis 

should be put on the capacity of national conservation institutional structures to contribute to the definition and implementation of the conservation 

priority actions within the landscapes. 

THE YAOUNDE DECLARATION: A SOLID CONSERVATION ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE CONGO

BASIN

The Congo Basin is a challenging environment for forest conservation. Political instability, high levels of government debt, a decline in export commodity prices and 

a long history of poor resource management had hindered the other countries conservation efforts. However, one of the most encouraging signs is the growing support 

among governments and communities in Central Africa for region-wide, collaborative forest conservation:

The Yaounde Forest Summit held on March 17, 1999, was the first public expression of the high level political will to conserve the forests of Central Africa. 

The Summit created a unique opportunity for the governments of the Congo 

Basin countries to make commitments to forest conservation. Bringing together 

six African Heads of State and representatives from the international community including the World Bank, the United Nations and European Commission, 

the summit’s aim was: To conclude new trans-national protected areas in the 

Congo Basin and agree upon a shared, long-term vision for these forests.

The Yaounde Summit marked a watershed in forest conservation in Central Africa. The summit opened a new era of ‘conservation convergence’ in Central Africa 

and was the first time that regional Heads of State came together to develop a coherent plan for the conservation of the second largest contiguous forest in the world. 

World Wildlife Fund helped organize the summit and the resulting Yaounde Declaration contained plans to protect vast tracts of forest in the Congo Basin. The 

summit marked a turning point in the political commitment to the region’s environVerDate Mar 21 2002 11:30 Apr 11, 2003 Jkt 085639 PO 00000 Frm 00041 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6621 F:\WORK\AFRICA\031103\85639 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL
38

ment. A key element is that Central African Governments have set aside areas of 

great economic value to themselves that are of global biodiversity significance. 

The first meeting of CBFP recognized the Plan de Convergence, the operational 

Plan emanating from the Yaounde Declaration, as the reference of partners’ actions 

in the region. 

Protected areas 

Far from being ‘‘a series of empty promises,’’ the Yaounde Declaration has resulted in solid conservation achievements in Central Africa. The total amount of additional forest protected areas created, confirmed or in the final stages of being setaside since March 1999 totals 13,866 square miles! 

In Cameroon the government has approved in January this year, establishment 

of a new network of Protected areas that will bring the country up to 15% under 

total protection by 2005. Current network of Protected areas covers 3,409,400 ha 

which represents 7.3% of the country size. The Cameroon government is currently 

completing setting aside 1,052,100 ha (2.3%), which will bring the total protected 

areas coverage to 4,461,500 ha, representing 9.6% of the country surface area. Furthermore, these areas represent economic forests that have been set aside for conservation in an area where public auction of logging concessions yields offers of the 

equivalent of $21 per hectare, representing foregone income to the Cameroon Government of over $30 million. In a further indication of political will, the government 

has recently withdrawn eight logging concessions in an ecologically sensitive area 

and is negotiating with conservation agencies to find ecologically acceptable alternatives to logging. 

In Central African Republic, the government has committed itself to protect 10% 

of the country’s total area. The President has commission a team to work with existing logging companies developing sustainable forest management plans. 

In Gabon, At the Johannesburg summit, President Bongo announced the creation 

of 13 new protected areas in Gabon covering over 3 million hectares. This park system, covering 11 % of the country, is the result of two years of fieldwork carried 

out in collaboration with WWF, WCS, Gabon and the Wildlife Directorate. The 

parks range from regions along Gabon’s coastline, where hippopotamuses frolic on 

untouched beaches, to unique forest clearings—home to ‘‘naı ̈ve’’ populations of gorillas that show no fear of humans. Along with the creation of these 13 National 

Parks, a Permanent Secretariat was created at the Presidency level to oversee the 

legal and institutional aspects of national park management in Gabon. 

In the Republic of Congo, in December 2000, the government announced that it 

would quadruple the size of the Odzala National Park to over one million hectares, 

thereby creating one of the largest national parks in Central Africa. 

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, which contains 55% of the Congo Basin’s 

rainforest including the Congo River, has the longest tradition of nature conservation in Africa:

— first national park in Africa—1925, Virunga NP;

— three national parks at independence in 1960;

— currently seven national parks with more than twelve other protected areas.

There are five natural World Heritage Sites in the Democratic Republic of Congo 

conferring international recognition to the uniqueness and importance of these protected areas. Three of these, Okapi, Kahuzi-Biega and Salonga are among the CBFP 

landscapes. 

International conservation NGOs have worked closely with the ICCN over the last 

20 years to train guards, researchers and administrators. These trained individuals 

remained in the parks, engaged on the ground throughout the recent years of civil 

upheaval. 

Following the Paris CBFP meeting:

— The ICCN established a commission (in which WWF and WCS were invited 

as technical advisor) to study needs in the CBFP landscapes based on the 

IRs and subIRs laid out in the CARPE Strategic Plan.

— A representative from the ministry took part in the commission to assure 

that the final vision was inclusive, including non-protected areas.

— A summary report produced by the ICCN will now circulate to CBFP partners to coordinate their contribution and identify areas that remain to be 

filled.

Regional officials took another major step forward in December 2000: 

A collaborative management agreement between the governments of Cameroon, 

Central African Republic and Congo has been signed, creating the Sangha River 

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Trinational, which links three contiguous national parks (Lobeke in Cameroon, 

Dzanga-Ndoki in Central African Republic and Nouabale-Ndoki in the Congo Republic) protecting 2.8 million hectares extending into all three countries. 

A similar transborder conservation program covering 15,000 square miles in the 

boundary region of Cameroon, Gabon and Congo is currently being negotiated. 

The Congo Basin countries have shown considerable political will in creating this 

protected area network. However due to the demographic trends and the need for 

agricultural land, no more than 10 percent of the African territory will be set-aside 

for protected areas in the long term. 

Central Africa is one of the last remaining areas in the world where vast, fairly 

intact forest still exist. We have the unique opportunity and political momentum to 

support the positive efforts fostered within the region to create a world class network of protected areas spanning much of the central African forests, linked by corridors of sustainably managed forests. The potential represented by the Yaounde 

Summit may be the last window of opportunity for conservation in central Africa 

and writing it off as ‘empty promises’ will certainly result in an empty forest. 

The results demonstrated from the Yaounde Summit represent a great glimmer 

of hope for the forest, wildlife and people of the region and the US money should 

be used to assist these countries involved in the Congo Basin. Failure to substantively support these countries will be a failure for the international community 

and an irretrievable loss for humanity. 

Sustainable Forest Management 

The forests of Central Africa are currently under threat from logging as a result 

of demand for timber from transnational logging companies in Asia and Europe. In 

1990, the volume of timber exported from the Congo Basin to Asia was less than 

200,000 cubic meters. In 1997, this has risen to over two million cubic meters. 

Today, in Gabon, 800,000 hectares of forests are allocated to logging concessions and 

this is likely to increase to more than two million hectares under current pressures. 

In neighboring Equatorial Guinea, exports have tripled since 1994. A growing demand for timber in China and other emerging economies has led to exploitation of 

forests in West Africa’s coastal states—where traditionally there have been weak 

controls and legislation—mobilizing major capital resources with unprecedented 

speed and flexibility, and exploiting greater proportions of timber resources than 

ever before. Conservationists predict that most forests which are not currently designated as protected areas will be subject to some logging activity within the next 

five years. 

WWF is promoting sustainable forest management in Cameroon, CAR and Gabon 

through a collaborative program between WWF Belgium, and the WWF-Central Africa Regional Program Office funded by the European Union. In each country, national working groups have been established to develop regional certification standards under the auspices of the Forest Stewardship Council. In addition, WWF is 

providing support to one private logging company in Gabon to design a sustainable 

forest management plan which takes into account the impact of the logging activity 

on biodiversity and the local population. 

In CAR, WWF, in partnership with the government, is working to promote sustainable management of the Societe de Bois de Bayanga logging concession within 

the Dzanga-Sangha Dense Forest Special Reserve. The Dzanga-Sangha Project is 

charged with assisting in the control of logging operations to ensure that the practices are consistent with the Forestry Code, and assisting in the development of a 

sustainable forest management plan for this concession. 

In Cameroon, WWF is implementing the Jengi initiative, a pilot project to establish sustainable forest management and a protected areas system in the forests of 

southeastern Cameroon. Although the Lake Lobeke Reserve (part of the Sangha 

River Trinational Protected Areas complex) and Boumba-Bek-Nki Complex (a component of the trans border initiative) will preserve part of this forest and help ensure a homeland for the BaAka pygmies, the speed and nature of current commercial logging, if unchecked, will result in three forest islands in a sea of devastation. 

Jengi to the BaAka is the spirit of the forest. Jengi presides over the initiation 

ceremonies of youth and provides guidance for these forest people whose cultural, 

physical and spiritual live depends on an intact forest. The BaAka have lived in harmony with the forest for centuries and now their songs are being drowned by the 

noise of bulldozers and chainsaws. Poaching camps follow the bulldozers, the wildlife disappears, and in many villages, the Jengi has not come for years. The Jengi 

project aims to halt and reverse forest mining, to achieve large-scale sustainable forest management and timber production, to develop alternative sources of income for 

local communities and to develop a conservation trust fund to support the three protected areas. The aim is to restore the Jengi as the guardian of the forest. 

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Most of the protected areas in Central Africa are surrounded or impacted in some 

way by logging concessions. Logging operations often bring in a significant immigrant labor force and become a pole of attraction for others seeking economic opportunities with these companies. Those that find work have money to buy food and 

clothes, and those that don’t have time to kill—literally—by becoming bush meat 

hunters to supply the concession work force. In many concessions, bush meat is the 

only source of protein available and is sanctioned by the companies, who are responsible to ensure adequate food and supplies to their laborers. 

Although to date, the forest certification process has had limited success in Central Africa due to a reluctance by companies to adopt logging practices that may be 

more costly and where there is limited market demand for certified products, we 

have found a willingness by companies to try to limit bush meat hunting and transportation on their concessions. Concessions bordering the Minkebe Forest Reserve 

in Gabon, the Dzanga-Sangha Reserve in CAR, Lake Lobeke in Cameroon and 

Nouabale-Ndoki in Congo-Brazzaville have all put in place measures to control bush 

meat exploitation, including sanctions of employees and drivers involved in hunting 

or transportation, closing roads to prevent access, providing alternative food sources, 

and closer collaboration with international NGOs and government authorities.

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