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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

'Alarm Bell' for Central African Forests

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

http://forests.org/

3/24/97

OVERVIEW, SOURCE & COMMENTARY by EE

U.S. Congressperson Clay Shaw has returned from a tour of Central

Africa with a warning concerning the land rush in the area's

rainforests. He describes the logging activities, much carried out by

newcomer Asian timber companies, as "clear-cutting pure and simple,"

because there is "virtually no replanting of trees being done." Much

of the troubles in various parts of Africa (and elsewhere) can be

linked causally to ecosystem degradation. Industrial removal of

remaining Central Africa rainforests will certainly intensify social,

ecological and political difficulties in the region while curtailing

future development options.

g.b.

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Subject: CONGRESS HEARS 'ALARM BELL' FOR CENTRAL AFRICAN FORESTS

From: USIA

Date: 1997/03/21

Newsgroups: zipnews.gov.news.summary.48hours

CONGRESS HEARS 'ALARM BELL' FOR CENTRAL AFRICAN FORESTS

(Rep. Shaw warns of land rush in the Congo) (880)

By Jim Fisher-Thompson

USIA Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- After returning from a recent visit to the Republic of

Congo, Representative E. Clay Shaw cautioned Congress that a land rush

is on in central Africa, spurred by commercial loggers who threaten to

destroy one of the world's last remaining great rain forests.

"An alarm bell must be sounded" at this environmental devastation,

Shaw told a March 19 House of Representatives Africa Subcommittee

hearing on "The Economic Development of Africa's Natural Resources,"

and "it must be heard round the world."

Shaw and Representative Bill Archer, both members of the powerful

House Ways and Means Committee, made a combination fact-finding/trade

mission to central Africa last January.

Because of continuing budget cutbacks, Congress is currently debating

whether development assistance to Africa should be curtailed -- or at

least based on business-oriented programs that help support the market

reforms many emerging nations are undertaking at the insistence of

international donors like the World Bank. The Ways and Means Committee

will be considering an Africa trade bill next month.

Shaw told the Africa Subcommittee that "we are concerned about the

degree of logging that is going on" in the Congo. He especially noted

that "the new type of logging that is being done by the Asians is

clear-cutting pure and simple," because "virtually no replanting of

trees being done."

Something must be done "to attack this problem and attack it as

vigorously as we can," he declared, because preserving the environment

on the continent is in the interests of all humankind.

After he spoke, Shaw introduced J. Michael Fay, director of the

Nouabale-Ndoki Project in the Congo -- the nation's first protected

national forest -- funded by the U.S. Agency for International

Development (USAID). Fay explained that USAID spends about $600,000 a

year on the project, which seeks to protect the fragile ecosystem of

the remaining rain forest in northern Congo.

Fay told the lawmakers that the granting of forestry concessions to

international loggers in the Congo at current rates could deplete the

"entire remaining forest" within 57 years.

Africa contains about 6 percent of the world's remaining rain forest

-- but just over a third of its original rain forest cover is left,

Fay said. "Most of what has been lost has been as a result of the

rapid expansion of the logging industry, followed by uncontrolled land

use in every country in Africa in the last 30 years. These logging

operations are having catastrophic consequences for the ecosystems,

the flora and fauna, the economy, and the people of these forests."

Fay, a botanist and a Peace Corps volunteer in Tunisia and the Central

African Republic from 1978 to 1984, said the greatest demand for

Africa's forests comes from the Far East.

While Asians only entered the central African lumber market last year,

Fay noted, in Gabon, for example, 85 percent of the country's timber

production now goes to Asia. In the period from January 1996 to

February 1997, he said, Asian firms acquired "between four and five

million hectares" of rain forest in central Africa.

The word is out, Fay said, that "there are natural resources in

abundance in central Africa, which can be exploited profitably with

few environmental constraints put on the producer."

Congo's government is caught on the horns of a dilemma, Fay said,

quoting a recent minister of agriculture who said: "The priority of

the Republic of Congo is development for its people. If this

necessitates the destruction of the forests of the country, it will be

done."

At the same time, Fay said, the Congo has requested outside help to

manage its forests, and its government has shown that "it will do all

that is possible within the framework of development to integrate

sustainable management schemes into the exploitation of the forests in

this country."

The country made a substantial start at conservation, he told the

lawmakers, when in 1993 it established the Nouabale-Ndoki National

Park, which covers 386,592 hectares. "The government of Congo has

shown itself to be concerned with wise forest management and the

creation of protected areas and more strictly managed forests," he

said.

Asked by Africa Subcommittee Chairman Ed Royce how he managed to

develop such cooperative relations with the Congolese government, Fay

responded that "basically, we integrated ourselves into Congolese

society. We have become integral members of the group that makes

decisions at the national, regional, and local levels, and that

includes private industry."

Because of this trust, said Fay, the USAID project people "have been

welcomed with open arms...and are consulted widely on the exploitation

of forests in northern Congo."

When Representative Amory Houghton asked Fay, "Are you saying that

everything is all right now in the Congo?" Fay responded: "No. What

I'm saying is that the [U.S.-funded conservation] model that we have

been able to introduce in the Congo is a good one and can be

replicated throughout central Africa."

The Nouabale-Ndoki Forest Project is a valuable conservation project,

Fay reiterated to the lawmakers, and should be supported.

Unfortunately, "current levels of support are falling short of our

needs."

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