I do have to confess that it is a bit different being on this side 

 of the table rather than that side of the table and I am not sure 

 it is entirely comfortable. But I will certainly try and do my best. 



I would like to say at the beginning that you made a very power- 

 ful opening statement and we welcome this hearing and we are 

 very grateful for the opportunity to testify. 



Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you. 



Mr. Bombardier. I do have a prepared statement, Madam Chair- 

 man 



Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Yes. We will be glad to put it in the record. 



Mr. BoMBAitDiER. Thank you. 



Madam Chair, think of an environmental challenge, any environ- 

 mental challenge, and it is a challenge facing Africa today. For ex- 

 ample, we know the population of Africa is likely to double by the 

 year 2020. We know approximately 80 percent of Africa's people de- 

 pend upon farming in one form or another for their livelihood and 

 that because of growing population pressures, they are being 

 pushed onto increasingly marginal lands. We know that soil erosion 

 and soil degradation are already serious problems in Africa, reduc- 

 ing its capacity to feed its people. 



Perhaps this seems a distant concern to those of us living here 

 in the United States. But can we as easily ignore some of the other 

 environmental challenges Africa faces? Today, the last major tropi- 

 cal rain forest in Africa, the Congo Basin, is under threat. The fu- 

 ture of the Congo Basin is obviously important to the 65 million 

 people who live there. But what happens there will affect all of us 

 because it is the second largest tropical rain forest in the world. If 

 destroyed, it will release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which 

 will almost certainly contribute to global climate change, and we 

 will not be able to escape those changes here in the United States. 



Let me cite another example. We know that biodiversity in Africa 

 is threatened. What does the loss of biodiversity mean? At one 

 level, it could mean the loss of animals that give us so much pleas- 

 ure, such as the forest elephants, gorillas and chimpanzees. And 

 perhaps this is a loss we could live with, if we had to. But the truth 

 is, we do not know the full range of plant and animal species that 

 would be lost if biodiversity in Africa is destroyed. And, thus, we 

 cannot begin to estimate the potential advances in medicine, agri- 

 culture and other fields that would be lost to the world as a whole. 



What are the root causes of these environmental problems? Cer- 

 tainly, rapid population growth, urbanization, the movement of 

 people resulting from the lack of economic opportunity, and civil 

 strife have all placed increasing pressure on the environment. Pov- 

 erty itself is a cause. But underlying these are a series of key prob- 

 lems affecting the way people use resources. 



Solutions often seem to require too much time to those in imme- 

 diate need. An African woman who needs to feed her children to- 

 night is unlikely to pav much attention to the long-term con- 

 sequences associated witn removing wood from her land. Too much 

 attention was given to building fences and parks, while too little 

 attention was paid to the needs of local communities in which the 

 parks and fences were located. 



Economic incentives often promote the short-term exploitation of 

 resources. In Madagascar, the Forestry Department used to charge 



