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McMeekin, acting president and CEO of the African Wildlife Foun- 

 dation. Having lived and traveled in Africa for more than 25 years, 

 or worked on African issues from Washington during that time, I 

 particularly appreciate the increased interest in the African envi- 

 ronment that this hearing represents. I applaud the subcommit- 

 tees' efforts. 



The African Wildlife Foundation has worked in Africa for 32 

 years. We have had projects on the ground in all regions of sub- 

 Saharan Africa, though we currently specialize in East Africa. In 

 particular, our major ongoing projects are in Kenya, Uganda, 

 Rwanda, Tanzania and eastern Zaire. Since the late 1980's, the 

 Foundation has been a leader in work that we coin "community 

 conservation" — that is, taking a step beyond traditional, park-relat- 

 ed conservation to work with communities surrounding natural 

 areas, trying to smooth the relationship between growing human 

 and shrinking animal populations so that they co-exist to the great- 

 er benefit of both. It is this specialty of our program portfolio that 

 I want to address today. 



It has been written and said many times that if people are to 

 conserve their natural resources, they must value them as sources 

 of wealth. No one who has worked in the field in Africa seriously 

 argues with this mantra of self-interest. And yet, implementing it 

 has never been simple. Like rural resources users anywhere, in- 

 cluding in the United States, Africans take a comprehensive view 

 of their self-interest, a view which values stability in their re- 

 source-use arrangements, as well as the immediate generation of 

 economic benefits, whenever possible. If conservation authorities in 

 Africa expect resource users to harvest from their environment 

 sustainably, then they must provide, in return, a reasonable expec- 

 tation that the relationship between themselves and the resource 

 users will also be stable. In short, our self-interest solution depends 

 on the institutions involved achieving a certain level of develop- 

 ment. Community conservation arrangements must be dependable, 

 and clearly supported by governments, to work. This is precisely 

 the direction that AWF is taking in much of its work. 



We call our community conservation program "Neighbors as 

 Partners". Unlike the worthy work of some of the other conserva- 

 tion organizations, we concentrate only on communities surround- 

 ing protected areas, because a very large percentage of the remain- 

 ing wildlife in East Africa is concentrated in parks and reserves, 

 from which it spills out into the communities that surround them. 

 In Kenya, our experience in the field has led to a current project 

 called COBRA, Conservation of Biodiverse Rich Areas, which is 

 wholly funded by USAID. The case history of community conserva- 

 tion in Kenya is a good lesson for those interested in putting scarce 

 conservation resources where they are most needed. 



Since Tsavo West National Park in Kenya was first gazetted, the 

 Maasai livestock herders surrounding it have not always been able 

 or willing to observe the restrictions against grazing in the park. 

 These restrictions came at a time when much land previously de- 

 voted to grazing was coming under more intense agriculture. As a 

 result, the Maasai were forced to look farther afield for land for 

 their herds. In dry seasons especially, the park became an inviting 

 solution, and no amount of force could prevent those resource users 



