10 



Society. Your entire statements will be placed in the record. Please 

 proceed with what is most comfortable, and we will start with Mr. 

 Nsanjama. 



STATEMENT OF HENRI NSANJAMA, VICE PRESIDENT, AFRICA 

 AND MADAGASCAR PROGRAM, WORLD WHJJLIFE FUND 



Mr. Nsanjama. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank 

 Chairman Gejdenson of the Subcommittee on Economic Policy, 

 Trade and Environment and Chairman Johnston of the Africa Sub- 

 committee, as well as other committee members for inviting me to 

 participate in this important hearing. I am Henri Nsanjama, a na- 

 tive of Malawi in southern Africa. Currently, I serve as vice presi- 

 dent of the Africa and Madagascar Program of the World Wildlife 

 Fund-U.S. 



This hearing is taking place at an opportune time. Opportune be- 

 cause, on the one hand, Africa is currently going through a process 

 of political reform to more democratic forms of government. On the 

 other hand, the U.S. Government is considering cutting back devel- 

 oping assistance funding to Africa. If adequate external financial 

 resources are not available for Africa now, the environment will in- 

 evitably suffer through unsustainable exploitation of natural re- 

 sources to satisfy immediate short-term needs. Aid to Africa from 

 the United States during this critical period will draw a line be- 

 tween a rotting and degraded African environment and a better fu- 

 ture for the citizens of Africa. 



Mr. Chairman, Africa is a continent of great cultural and biologi- 

 cal wealth with over 500 million people of hundreds of ethnic 

 groups and languages. Ecosystems and species richness may be un- 

 surpassed by any other continent. However, today, Africa is going 

 through a conservation crisis. The viability of Africa's ecosystems 

 is increasingly, and in some cases, highly threatened. The human 

 population of many African countries will double within the next 

 25 years. Pressure for land is increasing steadily, making a "hands 

 off' conservation approach less and less viable, and integrated con- 

 servation and development increasingly necessary. In short, Mr. 

 Chairman, conservation should not compromise viable and eco- 

 logically sustainable rural economic development. 



What should we be doing? Mr. Chairman, nobody can claim to 

 know with certainty how best to save the African environment, but 

 we all know that humans are the sole source of the continent's cri- 

 sis without any question. It is, therefore, logical to expect that the 

 solution to the crisis lies in the hands of humans. 



The loss of Africa's resources has complex dimensions with mul- 

 tiple and often interdependent causes, many of which are not of Af- 

 rican making or over which Africans have no control. Because of 

 this, Africa must be distinguished from other regions of the world. 

 These following characteristics make Africa's context for conserva- 

 tion unique: 1) severe economic underdevelopment; 2) basic human 

 needs are unmet for many; 3) population growth is out-pacing in- 

 creases in agricultural production; 4) most land is agriculturally 

 unproductive; 5) there are unpredictable and widespread droughts 

 through the continent; 6) until recently, undemocratic governments 

 prevented the normal growth of nongovernmental organizations; 

 and finally, Africa has trie lowest human resources development of 



