WRITTEN QUESTION E-1801/96 by Bernard Stasi (PPE) to the Commission (5 July 1996)

Subject: New development strategies in southern Africa

The current development guidelines in Africa are based on stepping up the productivity of arable land and livestock rather than exploring the production potential of other resources.

This means that land whose potential benefits in terms of flora and fauna could be exploited is ignored. At the same time, conservation efforts tend to protect these resources to the detriment of development.

Following the UNCTAD held in Rio in 1992, many African countries, particularly in southern Africa, have been rediscovering the economic and production potential of indigenous resources in their national development programmes, which is being encouraged by the Convention on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.

Does the Commission agree with this idea? Does it consider that these new development strategies may improve the living conditions of rural populations and help to conserve biodiversity, by drastically reducing poaching?

What measures does it intend to devise to assist these new African strategies, in particular as regards opening up markets in the Union for these indigenous resources?

Answer given by Mr Pinheiro on behalf of the Commission (26 July 1996)

Boosting agricultural and livestock-farming systems is one way of increasing yields and output in sub-Saharan Africa, which is necessary to support economic growth, combat poverty and feed the people, while preserving natural resources' production potential. Conservation programmes to protect particularly fragile or unique ecosystems are implemented at the same time.

The Commission does not see any contradiction between this trend and the wish to further develop other natural resources (flora and fauna). On the contrary, this development makes it possible to reduce pressure on natural resources and open the way for alternative use of resources. If such use is judicious and carefully monitored, it can also be undertaken in fragile environments.

The Commission is keeping a close watch on the situation and already provides technical and financial support for the initiatives taken by a number of African countries to achieve better integration of the economic and production potential of indigenous resources in their national development programmes.

Through the European Development Fund (EDF), decentralized cooperation and specific financial instruments - budget headings dealing with the environment in developing countries and with initiatives to protect the tropical forests - the Commission also contributes to the funding in Africa of programmes and projects aimed at ensuring the management of natural resources, and of fauna and flora in particular, in close association with the local communities and people, while taking care to ensure that social and economic incentives likely to improve their living conditions are provided.

In the specific field of wild fauna management, the Commission is cofinancing with the Netherlands government a research programme coordinated by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) the objective of which is to study and highlight the environmental, social and economic impact of involving local communities in fauna conservation and protection initiatives.

Thus, the Commission is promoting an approach which consists in developing the economic and production potential of indigenous resources, with the objective of improving the living conditions of the rural population, which in turn facilitates and helps to improve biodiversity management. It is true that the re-appropriation and development of natural resources by the rural population lead to a reduction in poaching activities, as shown by experience in southern Africa.

However, poaching is connected with both internal and external conditions which are difficult to control and influence. The Commission is supporting a study carried out by Traffic International on the cultural, social and economic aspects of trade in game meat in eastern and southern Africa, in order to evaluate more effectively the possible solutions and control poaching activities associated with this trade.

As regards the opening of markets in the Community and at inter-regional level in Africa, under the Fourth Lomé Convention, reviewed in Mauritius in November 1995, the African countries and the Commission have at their disposal a number of specific instruments likely to encourage and promote the marketing of local resources.