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know it better than anyone else. 



-- Almost forty years of post-colonial experience have 

 demonstrated what works and doesn't work in this realm. 

 Most important has been the widespread realization that 

 local community involvement is the key to sound resource 

 management . 



-- There is encouraging evidence that Africans are prouder 

 than ever of their wildlife heritage, aware of its economic 

 importance (as a magnet for tourism, but also for many 

 other reasons), and determined to manage it rationally. 

 The success of the ivory ban and reversal of decline in 

 elephant population is the most dramatic example, but far 

 from unique. 



While rapid population growth is still a constraint, 

 several countries are demonstrating that population 

 programs linked with maternal and child health care 

 programs can work. 



It is dangerous to generalize about Africa, and the picture 

 remains mixed. But by and large, many of the structural 

 economic problems that hobbled African agricultural production 

 -- unrealistic exchange rates and subsidies to urban elites — 

 have been fixed. From Mali to Malawi, new policies are 

 encouraging economic growth. And this means that peasants have 

 new incentives to nurture their land, forest and water 

 resources . 



In short, there is both good news and bad news on the 

 environmental front in Africa. The bad news, which tends to 

 dominate our perceptions, suggests an inexorable pattern of 

 poverty and population growth linked with systemic 

 environmental failure. The good news is about better 

 technology and growing awareness of environmental issues, 

 beginning to have tangible results. This hearing has posed the 

 question: will positive or negative trends prevail? What will 

 be the state of Africa's natural resource base, so vital for 

 human survival, in another forty years? 



The short answer is that predicting the future in Africa is 

 just as uncertain as it is anywhere else. 



But we do know that we can help make things go in a 

 direction that will avoid eco-catastrophe, with all its 

 political and humanitarian ramifications. Africa remains the 

 poorest region of- the world, and external assistance will be 

 essential for some time to come. U.S. policy, articulated 

 through the Development Fund for Africa and a variety of 

 multilateral commitments, is based on that reality. 



