the

boundaries of the Yellowstone Biosphere Reserve should be expanded to include not only the protected core, but also the greater ecosystem working landscape which surrounds it I and which is inextricably linked

to the core.

Mr. Chairman, it is time the U.S. returned to its position of leadershhip in international environmental management and protection. I have just returned from the Canadian Centennial Conference on their National Park System in which the participants some 300 in all - joined together after a three year effort to identify key areas all across Canada in need of designation as protected areas. This group presented to the Minister of the Environment over 540 different locations which should be protected as national parks, provincial parks, historical monuments, preserves and so on. This tremendous effort was funded by the Canadian Government but was carried out by private citizens and universities in a completely non-political environment. It was so successful that upon hearing the report, the Minister of the Environment announced he would automatically designate three areas as national parks with the support of the Parliament.

This is the kind of exemplary leadership and creativity we must once again strive to provide. The Canadians already have substantial acreage as protected National Parks, yet they have the vision to recognize the need to protect significantly more acreage, and the responsibility to manage those areas in a manner which will be protective of the natural and cultural resources contained within them.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to close with a quotation from the IUCN 1980 World Conservation Strategy which addresses the value of conservation:

Conservation, like development, is for people; while development aims to achieve human goals largely through use of the biosphere, conservation aims to achieve them by ensuring that such use can continue. Conservation's concern for maintenance and sustainability is a rational response to the nature of living resources (renewability and destructibility) and also an ethical imperative, expressed in the belief that "...we have not inherited the earth from our parents, we have borrowed it from our children."

The United States is in a position to demonstrate its commitment to international resource protection and sustainable resource utilization. There is ample opportunity to regain our role as leaders in international cooperation, as providers of technical assistance, and as progenitors of visionary and responsible concepts and techniques of environmental management. All that is needed is the commitment to follow through and expand on existing programs and to seek out and develop new and creative relationships with the nations of the world. We hope these oversight hearings will be a first step toward an understanding that the United State's position as a world leader obligates us to make such a commitment.

Mr. Chairman, I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to testify today. I will be happy to answer any questions the committee may have.

Thank you.

STATEMENT OF

Jim Birchfield

Before the

Subcommittee on Public Lands

Hearing on International Assistance Programs of
the Interior Department, Forest Service, and
Advisory Council on Historic Preservation

Tuesday, October 8, 1985

Mr. Chairman, I am honored to be able to introduce to the Committee 26 visiting senior forest administrators from 23 nations. I have submitted a list of their names and their countries for your staff. I am sorry we cannot stay for the full duration of the hearings, but our schedule demands we depart for a luncheon engagement. Our distinguished guests today are participants in the 2nd annual International Seminar on Forest Administration and Management.

Sponsored by the United States

Forest Service, the University of Michigan and the Agency for International Development. The seminar has three major objectives--to view and discuss both public and private forestry institutions in the United States to recognize what management systems may or may not be beneficial in their homelands; second, to provide an opportunity for them to interact with some of the leading forest resource professional and scientists in the United States, expanding this network of resource managers; and third, to generate the critical south-to-south dialogue between forest administrators in the developing world, so they may share their ideas, their problems, and their opportunities. I believe this

type of international cooperation in education is enormously useful in the integrated effort to manage and protect forest resources worldwide.

PAUL N PERROT
Director

COMMONWEALTH of VIRGINIA

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

BOULEVARD AND GROVE AVENUE, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 23221

11 October 1985

Congressman John F. Seiberling

Chairman, Sub-Committee on Public Lands
Committee on Interior and Peninsula Affairs
U.S. House of Representatives

Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Mr. Seiberling:

I very much regret that I was unable to offer testimony at the hearing of October 8th on behalf of the International Center for Conservation in Rome, the importance of continued U.S. participation in ICCROM, as well as the need for increased support to the cause of conservation on an international basis.

Over the last 25 years, ICCROM has trained well over 1,000 individuals in the basic principles of conservation and provided the practical know-how which, in many cases, has led them to leadership positions in their respective countries. Through its publications, its refresher courses, seminars on specialized aspects of conservation and the stimulation given to basic research, ICCROM has become a major force, cooperating closely with The International Council of Monuments and Sites, The International Council of Museums, and governmental entities throughout the world.

Our country has benefited substantially from its support of ICCROM. Many Americans have sharpened their technical understanding and broadened their appreciation of the very complex problems affecting preservation of monuments and sites. The staff of ICCROM has consulted with the National Park Service, the Architect of the Capitol and with virtually every major organization in the United States concerned with the preservation of cultural property.

(804) 257-0800

ing

Through their participation in ICCROM's trainprograms, American specialists have been put contact with the most expert authorities in most exacting aspects of conservation and preservation theory and technology.

in

the

While there is no question that the United States has benefitted directly from ICCROM, it has also benefited, perhaps more importantly, by demonstrating to the world its concern for cultural values and its respect for the heritage of others. I can think of no better recognition of the pluralities of our origins than showing our concern for the cultural heritage these origins represent, either through our participation in the major international campaigns for the preservation of unique monuments or by providing training or expertise. In my view of all of these are very directly related to our national interest.

ICCROM, as is well documented, not only has provided training and documentation resources, but has been directly instrumental in providing assistance in specific projects in virtually every part of the globe. Many of these activities have been funded by UNESCO contracts. These contracts, in all likelihood, will not be renewed or at best will be greatly diminished by the United States withdrawal from UNESCO. It is a very regrettable by-product of this withdrawal that the enlightened support given to the cause of historic preservation, and which has fostered mutual respect may be jeopardized by the financial strictures that are now affecting UNESCO.

Hence, I wish to join those of my colleagues who, for some time, have urged that the United States government provide an alternate means of support for these non-political, non-ideological activities, which are SO closely akin to our nation's traditions, Our sense of values, and which can, in SO many ways, contribute to our national image.

I therefore urge the Committee and Members of Congress not only to continue to provide support to such activities as ICCROM but also to imaginatively seek ways to fill in the gap which the U.S. withdrawal from UNESCO has caused, and to live up to the tacit commitment, made at the time of

withdrawal, that activities related to research, to cultural development, to the protection of the cultural heritage would continue to receive support.

The sums involved

are minute in comparison

to the benefits to be derived. I cannot think of anything that reaffirms more fully our confidence in the future, in the survival of the species, and of ideals for which we stand, than the allocation of those funds, which in the past have been channeled through UNESCO, directly to those organizations who will spend them for the benefit of all. Among these organizations, I would like to

list: The International Center for Conservation in Rome, The International Council of Monuments and Sites, The International Council of Museums, The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and The International Federation of Landscape Architects.

to

These entities, disparate as their names might appear to be, are committed to one cause: preserve the cultural evidence of humanities development in an appropriate environment. They deserve our support.