ing pressure on fragile soils, help to arrest the advance of the 

 desert. And so it goes. One could cite many other such examples. 



Our priority in Africa is to promote sound environmental prac- 

 tices, which are also developmentally sound. In 9 times out of 10 

 they are. There may be short-term pressures to do wasteful envi- 

 ronmentally destructive things, and that is a real problem every- 

 where. But in the end, the two things come together: development 

 and sound environmental practice. 



The African environment relates to our global concerns in many 

 ways. Central Africa has the world's second largest expanse of 

 moist tropical forest, after the Amazon. Deforestation linked with 

 brush fires from slash-and-burn agriculture is a significant and 

 probably growing source of C0 2 emissions. And Africa's magnificent 

 and often threatened fauna are priceless assets, partof our global 

 heritage. From rhinos to microorganisms, these species represent a 

 significant component of the earth's biological diversity. 



Our policy also has a strong multilateral component. We regu- 

 larly and repeatedly encourage the multilateral development banks 

 to assist borrowing countries to adopt environmentally sound poli- 

 cies. At U.S. insistence, for example, the World Bank and the Afri- 

 can Development Bank have adopted policies on environmental im- 

 pact assessment. In recent months, we have had increasing support 

 from other donors for quality reforms in specific loans to African 

 countries. 



Unfortunately, continued effective U.S. leadership in this area is 

 limited by U.S. arrearages to the banks. And, of course, we are 

 going to need to address this question soon ana find a balance be- 

 tween our support for these institutions, and their ability and will- 

 ingness to respond to our calls for efficient management, quality 

 control and portfolio improvements. 



We are also sensitive to the implications for Africa of a range of 

 environmental agreements and conventions flowing from the Rio 

 Earth Summit, including Agenda 21, the Convention on Global Cli- 

 mate Change, the Convention on Biodiversity and the Convention 

 on Combatting Desertification. 



We are, in fact, supporting climate change studies in half a dozen 

 African countries, helping Africans to inventory their greenhouse 

 gas emissions, to evaluate their vulnerability to climate change, 

 and to begin thinking about remedial strategies; with, of course, 

 the long-term objective of helping them develop their own planning 

 and implementation capability on climate change and its con- 

 sequences. 



By signing the Convention on Biodiversity, we have signalled our 

 support for sustainable use of the biosphere, and the fair and equi- 

 table sharing of benefits deriving from that use. In Africa, as well 

 as around the globe, countries will have new incentives and re- 

 sources for conservation of their unique biological gifts. 



The desertification convention, which is still under negotiation 

 and to which I have been leading our delegation, gives priority to 

 Africa because it is the area that is the most heavily impacted by 

 desertification. And we think it will accomplish two things. On one 

 level, it will encourage the kind of high-tech cooperation exempli- 

 fied by early drought warning systems and satellite data. And on 

 another level, we think it will encourage Africans to use existing 



