AFRICA'S ENVIRONMENT: THE FINAL 

 FRONTIER 



WEDNESDAY, JULY 17, 1996 



House of Representatives, 



Subcommittee on Africa, 

 Committee on International Relations, 



Washington, DC. 



The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2:05 p.m. in room 

 2200, Raybum House Office Building, Hon. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen 

 (chair of the subcommittee), presiding. 



Ms. Ros-Lehtenen. The subcommittee will come to order. 



We want to welcome Congressman Alcee Hastings' daughter, 

 Chelsea, who is with us today and she will be attending Florida A 

 & M. Congresswoman Carrie Meek would be very happy with your 

 choice of higher education institutions. Thank you, Matt and Alcee, 

 for being with us today. 



Environmental issues are of great concern to all of us but Alcee 

 and I, being from Florida, we understand how important a topic it 

 is as we seek to protect our State's coral reefs, the Everglades and 

 safeguard species that are native to our State, such as the manatee 

 and the Florida deer, from extinction. Miami itself has the normal 

 environmental challenges of any large urban area, even though 

 heavy industry is not a significant sector of our economy. However, 

 the need to protect the environment knows no municipal, State or 

 national border. The environmental damage to one region of the 

 world necessarily affects the global environment. 



As we take initiatives to resolve our own environmental difficul- 

 ties, we cannot remain detached or unconcerned about what is hap- 

 pening in other regions of the world. And Africa is the last frontier 

 for the environment for two contradictory reasons. 



First, it is a continent where there are substantial areas of the 

 environment which have not been changed by large-scale human 

 settlement and activities. While there has been some damage to Af- 

 rica's ecological landscape, it is important to remember that there 

 is much that remains to be preserved and which must be preserved 

 from further damage. Some African countries possess species that 

 cannot be found anywhere else in the world. 



Second, Africa is the last frontier because there is so much that 

 needs to be done to create an effective environmental protection 

 movement and to enforce environmental safeguards. Protection of 

 the African environment must begin with addressing the problems 

 of governance that plague so many countries on the Continent. 



A distinguished Nigerian geographer, Akin Mobogunje, wrote re- 

 cently that while there are international conventions in effect in 



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