22 



Testimony of 



Ambassador Robert M. Pringle 



Director, Office of Ecology and Terrestrial Conservation 



Department of State 



Before the Subcommittee on Africa of 



the House International Relations Committee 



June 21, 1995 



Madame Chairman: 



The subject of this hearing poses a fundamental question 

 about the balance between human activities and the environment 

 in Africa, and what the future will hold. The costs of 

 environmental failure, if it happens, would fall with 

 particular force on human beings in Africa. Let me briefly 

 explain why this is so. 



-- First, because economically productive African habitat 

 -- mostly rainforest or savanna -- is particularly prone to 

 degradation. According to UN sources, desertification 

 causes $40 billion in lost production world-wide annually, 

 about $10 billion of this in Africa. 



-- Second, because most Africans still live on the land 

 (agriculture is the primary source of employment for 

 seventy percent of the population), and when their land is 

 at risk, so are they; 



— Third, because Africa has a terribly high proportion of 

 its population already malnourished, so that further 

 decline in the natural resource base, on which food supply 

 is dependent, can easily have fatal results; 



-- Fourth, because many new and promising opportunities for 

 growth, such as ecotourism, also depend on a relatively 

 fragile resource base. 



Most of Africa's land degradation is caused by human 

 activities, exacerbated by population growth as greater numbers 

 of people are pushed on to less productive lands. Such 

 settings are a breeding ground for ethnic conflict which forces 

 more migration, puts ever more strain on marginal lands, and 

 feeds a cycle of poverty, civil strife and environmental crisis. 



Taken together these factors present a formidable challenge 

 to African nations and, I would like to emphasize, to the 

 welfare of the planet. But the situation is far from hopeless: 



— Africa's dependence on a fragile environment is forcing 

 new awareness that natural resources must be better 

 managed. It's a question of survival, and Africans 



