286 • Technologies To Maintain Biological Diversity 



Box 11-A.— U.S. Stake in Maintaining Biological Diversity in Developing Countries 

 Political Interests 



• The United States has strong commitments to 

 world peace, economic and social stability, 

 and maintenance of the Earth's basic life- 

 support systems — commitments that require 

 concern about the integrity and long-term pro- 

 ductivity of the world's natural resource base. 



• U.S. public institutions and private firms con- 

 duct activities that directly and indirectly af- 

 fect biological resources of other nations and, 

 therefore, are in positions to influence the atti- 

 tudes and actions of host governments and local 

 citizens on biological diversity maintenance. 



• Political stability can be compromised as a re- 

 sult of a breakdown of ecological systems. Civil 

 unrest in countries such as Haiti and El Sal- 

 vador has been attributed, in part, to degrada- 

 tion of natural resources. 



Economic Interests 



• The non-oil-exporting developing nations pur- 

 chase one-third of all U.S. exports. Adverse do- 

 mestic resource conditions seriously affect the 

 abihty of these countries to buy U.S. goods and 

 services. 



• Many of the natural reservoirs of crop genetic 

 diversity are located in developing countries. 

 Without a diverse base for crop breeding, the 

 development of high-yielding tree and crop va- 

 rieties characteristic of the Green Revolution 

 cannot be sustained. 



• Over the years, the United States has invested 

 billions of dollars in international development 

 assistance programs that could be undercut by 

 loss of biological diversity associated with re- 

 source degradation. 



• The United States has lent billions of dollars 

 to developing countries. Continued declines 

 in natural resources will reduce the ability of 

 these nations to pay their debts. 



Humanitarian Interests 



• The United States is committed to meeting 

 basic needs and supporting developing coun- 



tries' economic and social development, which 

 in turn is linked inextricably to the quality and 

 integrity of the world's natural resource base. 



• The United States increasingly is being re- 

 quested by governments and international de- 

 velopment organizations to provide technical 

 assistance and financial support for conserva- 

 tion-related activities in developing countries. 



Environmental Interests 



• The United States shares with South and Cen- 

 tral America and the Caribbean area hundreds 

 of species of migratory animals — birds, insects, 

 marine turtles, mammals — whose survival de- 

 pends on maintaining suitable habitats. 



• The United States is committed to help pre- 

 serve the world's flora, fauna, and vulnerable 

 ecosystems by virtue of domestic legislation 

 and national policies, and by being party to 

 a large number of international conventions 

 and agreements. Principal among these meas- 

 ures are the Endangered Species Act of 1973, 

 the Convention on International Trade in En- 

 dangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna, 

 and the Convention on Nature Protection and 

 Wildlife Preservation in the Western Hemi- 

 sphere. 



Educational and Scientific Interests 



• Advances in medicine depend heavily on re- 

 search animals found in developing countries. 

 The United States accounted for more than 

 half the estimated 30,000 primates traded in- 

 ternationally in 1982 for use in medical re- 

 search. 



• Rich arrays of living systems demonstrate the 

 many ways organisms can cope with variable 

 and often unfavorable physical and biotic envi- 

 ronments. Hence, areas such as tropical forests 

 provide unparalleled opportunities to under- 

 stand complex processes of evolutionary in- 

 teraction. 



SOURCE: Adapted from U.S. Interagency Task Force. The World's Tropical Forests: A Policy. Strategy, and Program for the United States 

 (Washington, DC; U.S. Department of State. 1980). 



