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500,000 and 1 ,000,000 metric tons even in good years, largely because it failed to begin 

 addressing the problems associated with rapid population growth twenty years ago. 



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

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

 Africa faces? 



In many African countries, for example, we know that forest lands have been 

 substantially degraded; and today, the major remaining tropical rain forest in Africa, the 

 Congo Basin, is under threat. 



The future of the Congo Basin is obviously important to the 65 million people who 

 live there. But what happens in the Congo Basin will affect us as well because it is the 

 second largest tropical rain forest in the world. Tropical forests serve as important 

 reservoirs of carbon; if destroyed, they 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 increasingly 

 threatened. What does the loss of biodiversity mean? 



At one level, it means that animal and valuable plant species are disappearing. But 

 perhaps this definition is too abstract to engage us. At a more human level, it could mean 

 the loss of wildlife resources that give us so much pleasure, such as the forest elephants, 

 gorillas and chimpanzees. 



And perhaps this is a loss we could live with if we had to — though it would be much 

 harder for Africans themselves to live with the loss of tourism revenues that we bring into 



