mprovements in food crops and livestock, global climate change 

 :hat wreaks havoc on weather patterns will be reduced and the 

 denuded lands can be recovered for productive uses. 



These are the highlights of today's hearing and a critical review. 

 We have held hearings in the past where we found that World 

 Bank loans ended up increasing production of cotton in countries, 

 but the cost of the increased chemicals was equal to the increase 

 in the production value. And then, we ended up poisoning their 

 water system with hazardous chemicals. And we walked away from 

 that obviously a net loss, an increase of product only equal to the 

 increased cost of production and a loss of a drinkable water system. 



Today, we have two panels of witnesses. The first is Robert 

 Pringle, from the Department of State and Richard Cobb, for the 

 Agency for International Development. Mr. Pringle. 



STATEMENT OF ROBERT M. PRINGLE, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF 

 ECOLOGY AND TERRESTRIAL CONSERVATION, DEPART- 

 MENT OF STATE 



Mr. Pringle. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. I would like 

 to begin with an anecdote, but I think it is illustrative. When I was 

 Ambassador to Mali, I discovered to my surprise that there were 

 about 500 elephants in the northern part of the country. In fact, 

 it is the northern-most remaining herd of elephants in Africa. At 

 the time very few people among the foreign community knew any- 

 thing about them, and they tended to laugh at you if you said there 

 really are elephants in Mali and you can actually go see them. 



They were publicized by a Malian, Dr. Noumoy Diakite who was 

 looking after them as a labor of love. Dr. Diakite had a job working 

 for a World Bank cattle project, and he used his tank trucks to 

 haul water to them during the great draught of 1984, and saved 

 a lot of them from dying. And he kept up with it and now there 

 is more international attention being paid to them. 



And it is important because they are in a wonderful geographic 

 triangle between the ancient city of Timbuktu on one side; the 

 inner delta of the Niger River on another side; and the Dogon coun- 

 try on a third side; and in the middle, some spectular Monument 

 Valley-type rock formations, all of which make it an area of great 

 potential touristic importance. And on top of that, these are ele- 

 phants that have survived because of a rather interesting tradi- 

 tional relationship with the local people, who are nounadic 

 uaregs — who believe that the elephants symbolize that everything 

 is going well with nature, and do not harm them. And on top of 

 that, they also have very small tusks. No one is sure why because 

 the animals, themselves, are very big. Perhaps it is because of the 

 perodic. So, they have not been poached for their ivory and that 

 has certainly helped preserve them up to now. 



And, yet, as development has taken place, there has been an in- 

 troduction of irrigated agriculture around the water holes where 

 these elephants go, and now they are beginning to come into con- 

 flict with people in a way that needs to be resolved. But at the end 

 of the day, when it does get resolved, it will be good for the coun- 

 try. It will certainly enhance the touristic attraction of the area, 

 not to mention its biodiversity. It is a kind of a parable, I think, 



