11 



Mr. Bombardier. Yes, sure. We are in constant touch with our 

 alHes about some of these concerns. In Liberia, the warring parties 

 have often used these resources to finance their campaign of death 

 and destruction. So it is a problem and it is going to be a very dif- 

 ficult problem to address, quite frankly, until we can get that situa- 

 tion stabilized in Liberia and begin to go in there and see just ex- 

 actly how much damage has been done in all of the areas. 



Mr. Payne. OK, thank you. 



Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you. 



Thank you so much, Gary. We appreciate your being here. See, 

 if your name is just too complicated, I just call you by your first 

 name. 



Mr. Bombardier. You did very well, Madam Chairman. 



Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you so much for being with us. 



I would like now to introduce our other two panelists who will 

 be joining us, Mr. Michael Wright and Mr. Steve Mills. Mr. Wright 

 is the president and chief executive officer of the African Wildlife 

 Foundation where he has served in this capacity since his appoint- 

 ment in July 1994. Mr. Wright came to the African Wildlife Foun- 

 dation from the Nature Conservancy where he headed a program 

 linking social and economic activities with biological diversity con- 

 servation. 



Trained as an attorney, he had also served as western regional 

 counsel and is founder and director of the organization's inter- 

 national program. Previously, Mr. Wright was with World Wildlife 

 Fund, U.S., serving in various capacities, including senior fellow, 

 senior vice-president, vice-president and general counsel and he 

 will be followed by Mr. Steven Mills, Human Rights and Environ- 

 mental Campaign Director for the Sierra Club. 



Mr. Mills shares responsibility for such issues as biodiversity 

 protection, multilateral development bank lending, human rights, 

 international trade, population and tropical forests. He leads the 

 Sierra Club's international outreach efforts, serves as the organiza- 

 tion's representative to the United Nations and serves as the coor- 

 dinator of the Sierra Club's Local Carrying Capacity Campaign, a 

 division of the International Population Program. 



Prior to joining Sierra Club, Mr. Mills also worked for the Nature 

 Conservancy and the Overseas Education Fund International. He 

 has been recognized at the national and international level for his 

 work in conservation causes and his contributions to human rights. 



We thank both of you for joining us today and sharing your in- 

 sight on this critical issue. We will begin with Mr. Wright. 



STATEMENT OF MR. MICHAEL WRIGHT, PRESIDENT AND 

 CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, AFRICAN WILDLIFE FOUNDA- 

 TION 



Mr. Wright. Thank you. Madam Chair. 



I have a written statement that I 



Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. We will put it in the record. 



Mr. Wright. Thank you very much. 



I am the president, and have been for 2 years, of the African 

 Wildlife Foundation, an organization that has been around for 

 about 35 years. We believe we are the only U.S. charity that is fo- 

 cused solely on conservation on the continent of Africa. We have 



