of assistance in this regard. Adequate funding would also allow the NPS to improve multi-lingual publication of valuable reference materials thereby more efficiently utilizing existing information, and to contribute to the costs of renewed multi-lingual publication of PARKS, the international resource management journal. 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. The passage of the measure before you today will send the world an important message about how the United States perceives its role in the global community. Mr. Chairman, NPCA sincerely appreciates the opportunity to testify today. I will be happy to answer any questions the committee may have. Thank you. STATEMENT OF THE SIERRA CLUB AND Subcommittee on Public Lands In support of H.R. 4568 to provide technical assistance to Thank you Mr. Chairman. I am Larry Williams, International Representative for the Sierra Club. I am pleased to appear before this Subcommittee today representing the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council. We strongly support U.S. Government agencies' efforts to promote conservation of wildlife and wildlands abroad. We thank you for your leadership on this important matter in the past and for your sponsorship of this new legislative initiative. This legislation to expand and to codify the programs of the National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service, and the other Interior Agencies, in providing technical assistance to counterpart agencies abroad is badly needed. H.R. 4568 would also insure that U.S. Interior Department assistance abroad complies with the Federal laws which help to protect the environment at home from ill-advised development. - As we all well know, conservation problems do not recognize international boundaries. Migratory species -- primarily birds but also including marine species such as whales and sea turtles tie us to our neighbors in the Americas and the Caribbean, as well as to countries along the western edge of the Pacific Ocean and in Europe. By More broadly, mankind faces a crisis of species extinctions. the end of this century, from 500,000 to 2,000,000 distinct types of living organisms may disappear forever. The primary cause is the destruction of habitat as our burgeoning human populations cut down forests, plow meadows and plains, drain swamps in the effort to produce food and income. Chemical pollutants and overexploration add to the toll. The vast majority of these extinctions will occur in the tropics, where the number of species is the highest and human pressures are growing at a rapid rate. The remoteness of this tragedy does not mean that U.S. citizens will be unaffected. Preserving biological diversity the natural variety of species or their semi-domesticated relatives - maintains the sources of genetic material vital to the future productivity of American agriculture and industry. Wild plants and animals contribute to our own health as well. - - The This bill is especially important because of America's well-known dedication and expertise in conservation of wildlife and wildlands. U.S. is looked to for leadership throughout the world. As this Subcommittee well knows, wildlife and park agencies from around the world seck the advice and assistance of our Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and National Park Service (NPS). In the Interior Department letter of November 13, 1985 we learn that the National Park Service provided "451 training and orientation programs for conservation officers from other member nations in 1985 totaling 4,176 training days." Over the years, the NPS has trained over 3,000 foreign parks systems directors. In November, 1984, the head of the NPS program, Robert Milne, received the International Parks Merit Award from the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) "for over two decades of building a network of park professionals throughout the world." In 1983, the Congressional Conference Committee on the State Department reauthorization noted "that the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service have a well-deserved reputation for many years of effective work in programs to protect endangered species and wildlife habitats." The Conference Report went on to "urge the administration and the appropriate congressional committees to give serious consideration to expansion of the international operations of both the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service." [U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Conference Report, 98th Congress, 1st Session, Serial tb. 98-563, p. 86]. It should be pointed out that the Fish and Wildlife Service is also actively carrying out a large number of projects that promote conservation. The same November 13, 1985 letter to the Chairman of this Subcommmittee from the Interior Department tells us that the FWS responded to 72 requests in the last five years, including eight requests from the USSR. In Latin America and the Caribbean, for example, the emphasis is on training and conservation of migratory birds and plants. The largest project is the establishmant of a graduatelevel wildlife management training center for Central America. This center, located at a university in Costa Rica, will begin teaching this year. The FWS plans to begin developing similar centers in Brazil and Peru during this fiscal year. Other training projects include continuation of annual workshops on techniques for managing wildlife refuges and methods for conducting research on migratory birds. FWS has spent considerable money Western Hemisphere and other on research of migratory birds. Two of these projects, concerning terns and the Giant Grebe, are scheduled to continue in FY 1986. - A more detailed description of FWS' Western Hemisphere program is contained in the recently published report, "Faunal and Floral Conservation in Latin America and the Caribbean," available from the FWS' Office of International Affairs. This "technical assistance" is carried out under the authority of several international conservation treaties: the Western Hemisphere Convention, the World Heritage Convention, the Caribbean Regional Seas Treaty, the Man and Biosphere Program, and the Wetlands Conventions, recently signed by the U.S. In addition, Congress has promoted U.S. leadership in conserving endangered and threatened species around the world by enactment of Section 8 of the Endangered Species Act. the United States has signed bilateral cooperative agreements incorporating environmental and cultural activities with several countries, including the Soviet Union, Spain, Saudi Arabia, and the Peoples' Republic of China. Finally, In his 1986 State of the Union address, President Reagan said, "The United States has long been the world leader in making its scientific talent, data and information, and financial resources avialable to the international community for these purposes [improving the management of resources of common interest], and we intend to maintain such a role." Obviously, several Department of Interior agencies are already quite active in providing technical assistance. H.R. 4568 would enhance these important programs in several ways. Of greatest interest to the Sierra Club and NRDC, it would allow the FWS, and perhaps other agencies, to accept reimbursement for technical assistance efforts from other parties U.S. agencies, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, or foreign agencies. Equally important, it would free the agencies to provide expert staff to U.S., foreign, and international bodies by exempting such staff from personnel ceilings. - In addition to the foreign requests handled by the above agencies, a suprising number of requests were responded to by the other Interior agencies such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs (nine requests), Bureau of Mines (31 requests), USGS (114 requests) and the Bureau of Reclamation (17 requests). We are particularly supportive of the language in Section 4 of H.R. 4568 requiring that "...any actions...supported or participated in" by the Secretary of the Interior must "comply with all relevant laws and regulations of the United States, including the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969...and the National Historic Preservation Act...". This Section is of vital importance and should have been U.S policy for our Government's involvement in foreign projects all along. The compliance to the NEPA requirements would mean that the Interior agencies would have to do what the U.S. Agency of International Development (AID) is already doing whenever it considers funding a project which would have a major impact on the quality of the human environment. While the Bureau of Reclamation only reports 17 project requests responded to in the last five years, one should not assume that this agency is not, therefore, having much of an impact on the environment of foreign nations. The Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) is definately an important player on the international scene. In China, for example, BOR reports that "under a recently signed 5-year agreement, it is providing technical assistance and training for final planning and design phases of the Three Gorges Hydroelectric Project". This assistance may seem innocuous enough until one realizes that the U.S. government is directly involved in the planning of the largest dam project in the world. These dams are proposed to control the Yangtze River, which has been the lifeblood of China for so many thousands of years. Within China there has been substantial debate over the merits of the Three Gorges Project since it was first suggested to Chiang Kai-Shek's government by the BOR in 1944. Until recently, official opinion has been that constructing the dam would be a costly fiasco, as it would involve the relocation of up to two million people, impede navigation, concentrate electricity generation where it wasn't needed, and destroy a uniuge area. In 1979 a U.S. Government advisory delegation, which included David Freeman, head of the Tennessee Valley Authority, Guy Martin, Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior and Lt. Gen. John W. Morris of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, concluded that the project was a waste of money. At the time Freeman stated, "We did a great service to the top leadership in China...I think your delegation succeeded in killing a 700 foot high dam on the Yangtze River that a bunch of engineers there had been in love with for the past 20 years." Now we find that this project is being designed by the same the very same agency that suggested its construction 40 years ago to Chiang Kai-Shek. The BOR has often been criticized in the U.S. Congress for its technical and managerial ineptitude, its self-serving and opportunistic economic analyses and its disdain for serious environmental planning. The Bureau, although often acting without authority, is an official arm of the U.S. Government and its involvment entangles the U.S. in the Three Gorges Project in the same way President Nasser entangled the U.S. (and later the USSR) in the Aswan Project. BOR planning assistance for the project soon becomes a symbol of U.S. support by the Chinese Government. To make this project become a reality the Chinese Government needs the backing of the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank. Fortunately, the World Bank has shown no interest in funding the construction of this dam. China just joined the Asian Development Bank in March of this year. We hope that the Asian Bank will also find this project a tar baby to be avoided at all costs. Section 4 would help insure that future BOR international assistance projects are environmentally sound. In addition Section 4 would require that "Priority should be given to programs, projects, and activities which have long-term environmental benefits and which enhance protection of natural and cultural resources and avoid damage to such resources." We also strongly support the provision that would require the assisted projects to be "environmentally sustainable and shall contain provisions for continued implementation by the foreign country in which they are carried out." Such a provision should have always been a basic part of any agencies planning without the Congress having to make it a law. However, we all know that a such basic understanding cannot be counted upon within the Federal Government without specific direction from the Congress. We have two modifications to suggest for this bill: 1. incorporate the Department of Agriculture's, U.S. Forest Service into the legislation and, 2. add the Endangered Species Act to Section 4. |