Ch. 11— Biological Diversity and Development Assistance * 293 



identify important biological diversity initia- 

 tives in their regions. The Asia and Near East 

 Bureau, in fact, has already prepared such a 

 document. But the lack of agency commitment 

 and the hesitancy of the bureau to redirect 

 scarce funds have reduced the document's util- 

 ity thus far. The Africa Bureau is currently com- 

 pleting a natural resources management plan 

 that includes an assessment of regional priori- 

 ties for biological diversity maintenance. 



The development of such reports for each re- 

 gional bureau is considered an effective way 

 to identify priorities for projects, especially 

 given the earmarking of funds. A network of 

 specialists and information sources already ex- 

 ists to help identify priority areas. For exam- 

 ple, committees of the International Union for 

 the Conservation of Nature and Natural Re- 

 sources (lUCN), and especially its Conserva- 

 tion Monitoring Center in Cambridge, England, 

 are major sources of such information. 



AID country-level environmental profiles can 

 also identify priorities for diversity projects. 

 The agency has completed 50 preliminary 

 Phase I profiles and 17 in-depth Phase II pro- 

 files (see table 11-1). AID has also supported 

 "state of the environment" reports in five coun- 

 tries, which are similar to environmental pro- 

 files but generally prepared within the coun- 

 try by a local group (18). 



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 



Table 11-1.— Country Environmental Profiles 



Undertaken or Supported by the Agency 



for International Development 



State of the 

 Phase I Phase II environment 

 Areas with profiles profile profile report 



Asia/Near East/North 



Africa 15 1 2 



Latin America/Caribbean . . 14 14 2 



Sub-Saharan Africa 21 2 1 



Total 50 17 5 



SOURCE: International Institute for Environment and Development, Environmen- 

 tal Planning and Management Project. "Country Environmental Pro- 

 files, Natural Resource Assessments and Ottier Reports on ttie State 

 of tfie Environment," Washington, DC, May 1986. 



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. 



AID has recently developed a concept paper 

 to explore the desirability of establishing a 

 diversity project within AID's Bureau of Sci- 

 ence and Technology. Benefits of such a project 

 include centralizing access to funding and per- 

 haps expertise on biological diversity. The pre- 

 liminary nature of the concept paper, however, 

 makes more critical assessment premature. 



In response to AID funding cuts, staff cuts, 

 and a move to cut management units, conser- 

 vation groups have proposed several ways to 

 loosen up money for biological diversity proj- 

 ects (2,6). Of particular interest are calls for 

 greater use of Public Law 480 funds for con- 

 servation projects. This option has both prece- 

 dence (52) and the potential to increase activi- 

 ties in this area. It would enable a relatively 

 small dollar amount to be supplemented with 

 larger amounts of foreign currency. The use 

 of excess foreign currencies by the U.S. Fish 

 and Wildlife Service (discussed later in this 

 chapter) provides further opportunities. 



Matching grants provided to conservation 

 organizations offers another cost-effective way 

 to promote projects. AID matching grants to 

 World Wildlife Fund-U.S. for its Wildlands and 

 Human Needs Projects and to The Nature Con- 

 servancy International for its network of Con- 

 servation Data Centers are good examples of 

 such public/private cost-sharing initiatives. 



Another constraint to implementing Section 

 1 19 is the lack of adequately trained personnel 

 in environmental sciences within AID (6,10,67). 

 Although AID designates an environmental of- 

 ficer at each mission, the person may have lit- 

 tle background in environmentally related is- 

 sues. The duties of an environmental officer 

 are included with numerous other duties; few 

 AID personnel are full-time environmental 

 officers. 



The agency could recruit personnel with envi- 

 ronmental science backgrounds and provide 



