30 • Technologies To Maintain Biological Diversity 



an effective way to identify priorities for exist- 

 ing diversity projects, especially given the ear- 

 marking of funds. 



The most important focus of biological diver- 

 sity strategies is at the mission level, where 

 projects are implemented. Congress has already 

 mandated that Country Development Strategy 

 Statements and other country-level documents 

 prepared by AID address diversity concerns. 

 Most missions, however, lack the expertise or 

 adequate access to expertise needed to address 

 this provision of Section 119 as amended. 



Option 9.2: Direct AID to acquire increased con- 

 servation expertise in support of biological 

 diversity initiatives. 



The ability of AID to promote biological diver- 

 sity in developing countries is seriously under- 

 mined by its lack of personnel trained in envi- 

 ronmental sciences. While true at the agency 

 headquarters, the problem is particularly acute 

 in its overseas missions. Although AID desig- 

 nates an environmental officer at each mission, 

 the person usually has litde professional experi- 

 ence or training in the area. Often environmen- 

 tal duties are combined with numerous other 

 duties; few AID personnel are full-time envi- 

 ronmental officers. Under these circumstances, 

 it is difficult to envision how AID can effec- 

 tively promote biological diversity maintenance. 



Congress could direct AID to recruit and hire 

 additional personnel with environmental sci- 

 ence backgrounds or at a minimum provide in- 

 creased training for existing staff. The near- 

 term prospects for AID, however, point to a re- 

 duction in an already overworked staff. It seems 

 unlikely, therefore, that significant in-house 

 conservation expertise will be developed. Con- 

 sequently, addressing biological diversity 

 within AID will depend on providing access 

 to conservation expertise within other govern- 

 ment agencies and in the private sector. Even 

 drawing on outside expertise, AID will need 

 some increase in environmental officers to 

 manage and coordinate projects. 



AID already draws on other government 

 agencies to participate in projects supporting 

 biological diversity maintenance. Mechanisms 



such as Participating Agency Service Agree- 

 ments (PASA) and Resource Services Support 

 Agreements (RSSA) allow interagency ex- 

 changes of experts and services. AID currently 

 has a RSSA with Fish and Wildlife Service for 

 the services of a technical advisor to handle bio- 

 logical diversity issues. These mechanisms 

 could be used to facilitate further access to con- 

 servation experts in other government agencies. 



A biological diversity program could be estab- 

 lished within the existing Forestry Support Pro- 

 gram, for example. The Forestry Support Pro- 

 gram is an RSSA between AID and the U.S. 

 Department of Agriculture (USDA) to provide 

 technical assistance to AID in the area of for- 

 estry and natural resources. A diversity pro- 

 gram would likely be an RSSA between AID, 

 the Department of the Interior, and USDA. 

 Such a program would provide AID missions 

 with access to conservation expertise within 

 the Department of the Interior, the USDA, and 

 through a roster of consultants. 



A constraint to the RSSA and PASA is agency 

 personnel ceilings and the limited number of 

 personnel with international experience. In 

 light of a reduction of the Federal work force, 

 agencies may be reluctant to devote their staff 

 to nonagency projects. Although some Federal 

 programs have been successfully used in sup- 

 porting AID projects, expertise within the pri- 

 vate sector will also be needed to address AID's 

 requirements. 



The Peace Corps is also seen as having spe- 

 cial potential to support biological diversity 

 projects. Cooperative agreements with the Na- 

 tional Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, 

 The Man in the Biosphere Program, and World 

 Wildlife Fund/U.S. have increased the Peace 

 Corps' capacity and access to talent and train- 

 ing in this area. Another area of potential col- 

 laboration is between the Peace Corps and the 

 Smithsonian Institution, especially given the 

 Smithsonian's newly established Biological 

 Diversity Program. Precedence exists for such 

 a cooperative relationship, in the form of the 

 Smithsonian-Peace Corps Environmental Pro- 

 gram, which was terminated in the late 1970s. 

 With the emergence of special interests in diver- 

 sity maintenance. Congress could direct both 



