the same fee for cutting pine trees as for harvesting the rare 

 pahsandra, a tree that takes a century to regenerate. Too often, 

 people do not have secure use of the land, trees, and other re- 

 sources and thus lack the incentive to use such resources respon- 

 sibly. 



Finally, the environment in Africa is so diverse and complex that 

 single-issue solutions can often lead to confusion, wasted resources 

 and even more deterioration. The environmental consequences of 

 conflict in the Horn of Africa, in Angola and Mozambique, and in 

 Liberia, cannot be understated. At the same time, scarcities of land 

 and other resources often are fundamental causes of conflict. 



Yet not all is negative in Africa. There are many examples where 

 Africans are taking control of their future by taking control of their 

 environment. While problems differ, the recipes for environmental 

 progress share certain traits in common. By giving local people a 

 stake in managing their natural resources, we are beginning to see 

 that Africans can wisely balance their immediate needs with the 

 long-term needs of their children and grandchildren. 



Throughout Africa, there is a rethinking of the respective roles 

 of the public and private sectors. For instance, government forestry 

 agents in Senegal and Mali now act in partnership with commu- 

 nities, providing technical support instead of acting as policemen. 

 As a consequence, communities and governments share responsibil- 

 ity for forest management and the forest resources are being sus- 

 tained. Throughout Africa, there have been many examples of en- 

 hanced coordination between donors, PVO's, host country govern- 

 ments and local communities to address the most critical problems 

 facing the environment. 



Clearly, there is no certainty that the hopeful signs we are seeing 

 today will become the rule, yet it is also clear that Africa today is 

 a vastly different continent than it was a decade ago. Today, more 

 than 40 African countries have adopted, or are in the process of 

 adopting. National Environmental Action Plans (NEAP). In the 

 best of cases, such as Madagascar, these are developed in highly 

 participatory ways: set specific goals and objectives; establish prior- 

 ities for the limited use of funds; and become a mechanism through 

 which donors, host governments and people of Africa jointly col- 

 laborate in attacking environmental problems. 



NEAP is just one example of the growing commitment of Afri- 

 cans to addressing the environmental challenges they face. There 

 are many others as well. And I am proud to say that USAID is 

 playing an important role in this effort as well. Since 1987, the Af- 

 rica Bureau has been implementing its environmental programs 

 through our Plan for Natural Resources Management. This plan fo- 

 cuses our efforts in three key areas: tropical forestry, sustainable 

 agriculture and biodiversity. We firmly believe that the way to 

 maximize our impact is by focusing scarce resources on a limited 

 range of issues and these are the areas where we believe that we 

 have a comparative advantage among the donor agencies. 



There are two points I would like to stress in particular with re- 

 gard to our environmental programs. First, like physicians, we take 

 very seriously the injunction to do no harm. We are required under 

 agency environmental procedures to review every project design 



