14 



President Salinas has organized at the national level an organi- 

 zation called Conaufio, which is an umbrella organization for habi- 

 tat and biodiversity protection. Beneath that, both the National 

 University and the National Ecological Institute, have begun to 

 work on these issues in really a remarkably comprehensive way. 



It was against that background that I was privileged to attend 

 a ceremony at which the Mexican government signed the latest 

 amendments to the North American plan and thereby became real- 

 ly for the first time a full committed participant at the national 

 level. 



There is an extraordinary level of interest in these issues in Mex- 

 ico. And that gives rise to really the only specific suggestion I have 

 with respect to this legislation; that is, that you consider amending 

 the legislation to allow a match for Mexican projects in cash from 

 the Mexican side. 



The current law can be read to require that that match come 

 from American sources. There is an enormous reservoir of private 

 sector support in Mexico, and I think it would be a wonderful sig- 

 nal to have this legislation clearly say that a cash match for these 

 projects may originate on the Mexican side for Mexican projects. 



With that, I would simply subscribe to everything that Chairman 

 Dingell and the others have had to say about this. We are dealing 

 with a shining example of effective habitat conservation, of power- 

 ful partnership arrangements, and I think maximum support, not 

 just for waterfowl, not just for wetlands, but for all of the values 

 that are symbolized by waterfowl and embodied by wetlands and 

 which of course need a lot more attention but they are certainly 

 getting it in the form of this particular legislation and the process 

 that it embodies. Thank you. 



Mr. Studds. Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary, we appreciate 

 that. 



[The statement of Secretary Babbitt can be found at the end of 

 the hearing. 



Mr. Studds. One question. And that is, several have suggested, 

 and Mr. Dingell picked up on the refrain, that in some respects we 

 are not sufficiently guaranteeing a long enough term in our ease- 

 ments or acquisitions here. Do you have any thoughts on this sub- 

 ject? Any suggestions as to whether or not we need to amend the 

 Act in that area? 



Secretary Babbitt. Well, I share that observation because it 

 seems to me that what we ultimately want to point toward is ei- 

 ther acquisition or a perpetual easement of some kind, because 

 these issues of finding permanent habitat conservation seem to me 

 to have to come to rest in some kind of final configuration. 



And I would agree again with Mr. Dingell, it does not have to 

 be fee simple ownership. It can be an effective conservation ease- 

 ment. It can be as simple as deed restrictions. There are all kinds 

 of possible arrangements. But I view the lease concept as a halfway 

 house. It is not really a solution. What it does is, it buys time in 

 the interim as we move toward, it seems to me, a more permanent 

 arrangement with respect to the land. So anything that we can do 

 to drive the system toward longer range leases is certainly a step 

 in that direction. 



Mr. Studds. Thank you, sir. The gentleman from New Jersey. 



