10 



mentioned — Zaire, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African 

 Republic and Congo — these are the countries in which the Congo 

 Basin is located and we have designed a new 5-year, $14-million 

 project, the Central African Regional Program for the Environment, 

 CARPE. We are going to be working closely with the global envi- 

 ronmental facility at the World Bank. It is going to be a very inno- 

 vative program which we manage completely through PVO's and 

 NGO's on the ground with support from a number of agencies be- 

 side ourselves. So we are very hopeful that we can begin the proc- 

 ess of turning around the destruction of the rain forest in the 

 Congo Basin. 



Mr. Johnston. Last question. Madam Chairwoman. 



Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Sure. 



Mr. Johnston. In Angola, there are more land mines than there 

 are people. Has this been a deterrent to promoting environmental 

 programs, either in Angola or in other countries—Somalia, Rwan- 

 da? 



Mr. Bombardier. It is a major contributor to environmental deg- 

 radation. People do not have access to land that would be fertile 

 and that could be used for productive farming and so people are 

 forced, to some degree, onto smaller and less desirable plots of 

 land. So land mines, the residue of conflict and civil war, are major 

 causes and impediments to environmental progress in these coun- 

 tries. 



Mr. Johnston. Thank you. 



Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you. 



Congressman Houghton. 



Mr. Houghton. I think I will wait. 



Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. OK 



Mr. Houghton. Thank you very much. 



Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Congressman Payne. 



Mr. Payne. Oh, I 



Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Would you like to make a statement or ask 

 some questions? 



Mr. Payne. Well, I v/ill follow my colleague, Mr. Houghton. Al- 

 though I would like to mention that I, too, have a concern about 

 the Gabon and have written a letter to President Omar Bongo 

 about the degradation there in the rain forest and asking, espe- 

 cially in the Lope region, that they cease or revisit their degrada- 

 tion of that area. 



I also have concern about Liberia. I understand that there has 

 been a tremendous amount of logging done, I guess primarily by 

 the French traders, and I understand even now at risk are some 

 wild bird preserves that habit in that particular forest and now 

 there is a question about the survival of some rare species and also 

 the civil war is creating the problem of logging. 



Is there any effort going on through governments to at least raise 

 the concern — and many times there is a tremendous amount of ex- 

 ploitation when you have warring factions and it would seem to be 

 going on in Liberia, not only with timber but with other natural 

 resources — diamonds and things of that nature — that we have 

 heard about recently. But is there any concerted effort to have dis- 

 cussions on some levels with primarily European business people 

 of governments to question these practices? 



