[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 88 (Thursday, June 27, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6256-S6258]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. FRIST (for himself, Mr. Feingold, and Mr. Lugar):
  S. 2695. A bill to amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to extend 
the authority for debt reduction, debt-for-nature swaps, and debt 
buybacks to nonconsessional loans and credits made to developing 
countries with tropical forests; to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, today I rise to introduce, with Senator 
Feingold and Senator Lugar, a bill that could have a far-reaching 
impact in preserving some of the most pristine tropical forest in the 
world.
  We seek to amend the Tropical Forest Conservation Act, TFCA, a law 
passed in 1998. The TFCA has led to the preservation of thousands of 
acres of tropical forest, particularly in the Americas, by allowing low 
and middle income countries to engage in debt-for-nature ``swaps.'' The 
TFCA allows eligible governments to divert resources currently needed 
for debt service toward the conservation and management of disappearing 
rain forests.
  Our amendment to TFCA would expand the use of this successful 
program. Our change would allow more tropical forests to be preserved. 
Under TFCA, countries are limited to using concessional debt for making 
swaps. Concessional debt is special low-interest loans reserved for the 
poorest countries to exchange non-concessional debt, e.g. Export-Import 
bank loans, etc. for preserved forest land. This change will not only 
increase the potential for swaps in countries with concessional debt, 
but also make some countries newly eligible for the program.
  One example of a country that is not currently eligible for TFCA, but 
that has great potential for using the expanded program, is the African 
nation of Gabon. Gabon has some extraordinary, pristine forest land 
that deserves to be preserved.

[[Page S6257]]

  In the fall of 2000, the National Geographic Society sponsored a 
2000-mile, 15-month expedition through Central Africa by Dr. Mike Fay, 
a well known conservationist. Dr. Fay traveled through some of the last 
unexplored regions on earth, including the Langoue forest in Gabon. His 
expedition encountered a remarkable variety of species and habitat that 
are in danger of disappearing unless we help Gabon's government 
preserve it. Dr. Fay's observations of the Langoue Forest are 
compelling. Here are some excerpts from his report:

       ``[T]here's a river in almost the dead center of Gabon 
     called the Ivindo which has an amazing set of waterfalls. 
     It's a big river, probably a hundred or so meters wide, of 
     slow, black water, and it drains almost all of northeastern 
     Gabon. These chutes, these waterfalls--two in particular 
     called Mingouli and Kongou--make this place an attraction.
       An Italian named Giuseppe Vassallo, who died about a year 
     and a half ago . . . promoted this place as a national park 
     because he said it was the best forest in Gabon. He talked 
     about it and lobbied for it and cajoled people, but it just 
     never quite happened. We walked across this block that he'd 
     always talked about, and I actually flew over it with him in 
     '98 . . .
       And we discovered the highest concentration of giant 
     elephants that we'd seen on the entire walk. It's probably 
     the only place left in the central African forest with 
     elephants that are abundant and with a large percentage of 
     very large males, tusks that no one has seen in a very 
     long time, one hundred pounds on a side. Giant elephants, 
     it's something you just don't see because they've been 
     pouched out of the population. [And] naive gorillas, 
     something that we hadn't seen on the entire trip. You can 
     tell they're naive because when they see you they don't 
     run away, they don't look alarmed, they don't act alarmed, 
     they don't vocalize. The males don't charge at all and 
     they get very curious. They come to see you and they 
     approach well within the danger zone. They sit there for 
     hours and they just stare as if it's something they've 
     never seen before, and it's pretty obvious that they 
     haven't.
       You travel a little bit farther along and there's this 
     mountain that we'd been navigating toward for a few weeks, 
     and it's again full of elephants, and it's got all kinds of 
     beautiful topography and rocky cliffs. It's a real sort 
     hidden forest, and it really gives you a feeling of great 
     isolation being up on this mountain plateau. So we started 
     walking south of the mountain and pretty soon we came upon an 
     elephant trail that lead us a little bit astray. It lead us 
     to the east of where we wanted to go but we kept on following 
     it and it just got bigger and bigger and bigger. I looked a 
     the map and it was obvious that it was navigating us right 
     toward a clearing. Long before you get to an elephant 
     clearing you can tell where you're going, because the 
     elephant trail opens up to like two meters wide, it's covered 
     with dung, and there's a huge amount that are on these 
     ``highways.'' It's a lot like how major highway arteries in 
     the States get bigger as they go into the city, that's 
     basically what it is for elephants, it's an ``elephant 
     city.'' So, we get there, and there it is, this clearing that 
     no one has ever seen before, no conservationist even could 
     have imagined existed in Gabon. This place is just abounding 
     with wildlife and you think ``This place really is what old 
     Giuseppe said it was.'' Even though he had never walked in 
     it, it was as if he just knew this place was the best. The 
     place is called Langoue and it still exists.

  There are about 1.2 million acres in the Langoue Forest that are 
completely untouched. Experts familiar with the region estimate that 
more than 700,000 acres at the heart of the forest could be preserved 
for about $3.5 million. This part of the forest includes the naive 
gorillas, the giant elephants, and the waterfalls.
  At the very modest cost, our amendment will give nations like Gabon a 
new tool for preserving their remaining tropical forest, for the 
benefit of the people of Gabon, and for the benefit of mankind.
  I ask unanimous consent that the full text of the interview with Dr. 
Fay and the text of a letter from Conservation International appear at 
this point in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

             [From National Geographic News, Aug. 9, 2001]

      Interview: Mike Fay Is on a Trek to Preserve Forest in Gabon

                           (By Andrew Jones)

       Last year, conservationist J. Michael Fay completed a 
     2,000-mile (3,218-kilometer), fifteen-month walk through 
     central Africa in some of the world's most pristine forests. 
     Now, the expedition leader for the National Geographic 
     Society and an ecologist for the Wildlife Conservation 
     Society has undertaken another challenge: a personal campaign 
     to preserve nearly 250,000 hectares (618,000 acres) of forest 
     in Gabon as a national park.
       National Geographic News: You were in the African bush for 
     fifteen months. How has that changed your perspective on 
     conservation?
       Dr. J. Michael Fay: As a conservationist, I would say it's 
     a double-edged sword. Because when you're out there, you 
     realize how much is left. There's such abundance--it's so 
     huge, it goes on forever. You can walk for fifteen months and 
     basically be in the woods the whole time and not have to 
     traverse areas that are inhabited by humans. And you think, 
     ``Wow, that's cool. This place is at the ends of the Earth; 
     it will never be touched.'' Then you look at the map and the 
     logging activity and you look at the human expansion and you 
     think, ``This place is all going to disappear in the next 
     seven to ten years.''
       It makes you wake up to the fact that human beings, even in 
     the 21st century, still don't regard natural resources as 
     something precious. Because if they did, there would be a 
     worldwide effort to preserve these places rather than extract 
     wood out of them as quickly as possible with zero regard for 
     ecosystems, while wasting most of that wood before you get it 
     to the market. So from my perspective, it was pretty 
     depressing.
       NG News: do you think there's anyone in particular to 
     blame? Or is there no one person or group we can point to as 
     the source of the problem?
       Fay: I think the human species is what it is. It evolved to 
     extract as many resources as it possibly could from the 
     environment to survive better and better. That's kind of what 
     humans are programmed to do. And to do the opposite of that, 
     to conserve, I think is a very difficult thing for people to 
     even comprehend, let alone enact. It's kind of counter-
     evolutionary, and I think it takes a lot of education and a 
     lot of foresight. If humans want to survive on this planet 
     without having some kind of catastrophic event take out large 
     percentages of the population someday in the future, then 
     they're going to have to make that shift. A lot of people 
     talk about it, a lot of people understand it, but it's really 
     hard to make that last jump and actually say, ``Okay, I'm 
     going to make a switch.''
       NG News: You're now trying to have nearly 250,000 hectares 
     of forest land in Gabon designated as a national park. Why 
     did you choose that particular area?
       Fay: Well, there's a river in almost the dead center of 
     Gabon called the Ivindo which has an amazing set of 
     waterfalls. It's a big river, probably a hundred or so meters 
     wide, of slow, black water, and it drains almost all of 
     northeastern Gabon. These chutes, these waterfalls--two in 
     particular called Mingouli and Kongou--make this place an 
     attraction.
       An Italian named Giuseppe Vassallo, who died about a year 
     and a half ago . . . promoted this place as a national park 
     because he said it was the best forest in Gabon. He talked 
     about it and lobbied for it and cajoled people,but it just 
     never quite happened. We walked across this block that he'd 
     always talked about, and I actually flew over it with him in 
     '98. We looked at the logging companies coming in from the 
     west at a very rapid rate, and so we tried to design a walk 
     in this place that didn't go through any logging. And we 
     discovered the highest concentration of giant elephants that 
     we'd seen on the entire walk. It's probably the only place 
     left in the central African forest with elephants that are 
     abundant and with a large percentage of every large males--
     tusks that no one has seen in a very long time, one hundred 
     pounds on a side. Giant elephants--it's something you just 
     don't see because they've been poached out of the population. 
     [And] naive gorillas--something that we hadn't seen on the 
     entire trip. You can tell they're naive because when they see 
     you they don't run away, they don't look alarmed, they don't 
     act alarmed, they don't vocalize. The males don't charge at 
     all and they get very curious. They come to see you and they 
     approach well within the danger zone. They sit there for 
     hours and they just stare as if it's something they've never 
     seen before, and it's pretty obvious that they haven't.
       You travel a little bit farther along and there's this 
     mountain that we'd been navigating toward for a few weeks, 
     and it's again full of elephants, and it's got all kinds of 
     beautiful topography and rocky cliffs. It's a real sort of 
     hidden forest, and it really gives you a feeling of great 
     isolation being up on this mountain plateau.
       So we started walking south of the mountain and pretty soon 
     we came upon an elephant trail that lead us a little bit 
     astray. It lead us to the east of where we wanted to go but 
     we kept on following it and it just got bigger and bigger and 
     bigger. I looked at the map and it was obvious that it was 
     navigating us right toward a clearing. Long before you get to 
     an elephant clearing you can tell where you're going, because 
     the elephant trail opens up to like two meters wide, it's 
     covered with dung, and there's a huge amount of track that 
     are on these ``highways.'' It's a lot like how major 
     highway arteries in the States get bigger as they go into 
     the city--that's basically what it is for elephants--it's 
     an ``elephant city.'' So, we get there, and there it is--
     this clearing that no one has ever seen before, no 
     conservationist even could have imagined existed in Gabon. 
     This place is just abounding with wildlife and you think 
     ``This place really is what old Giuseppe said it was.'' 
     Even though he had never walked in it, it was as if he 
     just knew this place was the best. The place is called 
     Langoue and it still exists.
       If you look at the map from a land-use perspective though, 
     you realize that the entire block has been given away to many 
     different

[[Page S6258]]

     logging companies, and they're working their way into Langoue 
     as fast as we can talk. They're going to log that entire 
     area, and there's still about 500,000 hectares [1,235,500 
     acres] that are completely virgin, untouched forest. But 
     because of the sheer number of logging companies in there, 
     the potential to log that block completely very quickly is 
     very high. So we're launching a campaign with the government 
     and the logging companies and the conservation community and 
     with the general public to try and create a national park in 
     this place. That means pushing back time. That means going 
     back in time essentially four or five years [ago], when there 
     were no logging concessions in this place. And that's 
     difficult to do. And it's expensive.
       NG News: How much money are you looking to raise?
       Fay: Well, if we had three and a half million dollars 
     today, right now, we can go into Gabon tomorrow and negotiate 
     the logging rights for those concessions and maybe preserve 
     300,000 hectares [741,000 acres] of that forest, which 
     includes those native gorillas, the giant elephants, the 
     clearing on the mountain and the waterfalls. We could start 
     that process quite easily tomorrow. But surprisingly, finding 
     three and a half million dollars for conservation, in this 
     world that has too much money, is very difficult.
       NG News: Where have you been looking for funding?
       Fay: Everywhere. You know, we don't have a major 
     coordinated fund-raising effort that we're investing lots of 
     money into. We're trying to do it on the cheap, I guess you 
     could say. We're trying to use the media coverage that we've 
     received and use the connections that we have from a number 
     of sources. We have raised well over a million dollars 
     already, but we . . . need three and a half million dollars, 
     and without it we're not gonna get that national park. . . . 
     When you look at the exploitation of the resources in those 
     countries it's not done for the consumption of Gabonese or 
     Congolese, it's done primarily for the consumption of 
     Americans, Asians, and Europeans. And people need to be 
     responsible for that. They can't just blithely keep going 
     farther afield and exploiting the wilderness without having 
     to pay some attention to that fact, without having to pay up. 
     . . . We get all upset when the U.S. government wants to go 
     drilling in [the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge]. But when 
     an oil company wants to drill in the most pristine place in 
     Gabon, we don't say ``boo.'' And that has to change. People 
     need to be responsible globally if they're going to exploit 
     globally. It has to be a two-way street.
       NG News. How do you propose to monitor the park and protect 
     it from such threats as poaching, logging, and bushmeat 
     hunting?
       Fay: It's that double-edged sword again. The place is very 
     isolated right now. So we're looking at a four-pronged 
     approach. The first prong was to basically get a team on the 
     ground . . . to protect that clearing and get a presence in 
     there that says to people, ``There's somebody looking after 
     this place.'' People have taken an interest in it, people 
     have recognized that it's something that needs to be 
     protected.  . . . We have money from the U.S. Fish and 
     Wildlife Service to establish a camp and a team on the 
     ground. So that's prong number one.
       Prong number two is the buy-back. We need to negotiate with 
     logging companies and with the Gabonese government to find 
     out how much it is going to cost and which blocks we can get. 
     We're dealing with ten different blocks, each about 25,000 
     hectares (62,000 acres) . . . and each one takes a separate 
     negotiation essentially. We have the green light from the 
     Gabonese forestry minister to start this process.
       The third prong of the effort is to establish a trust fund 
     so that management will take place there in the long term. 
     Trust funds not only create a situation where you can get 
     funding for a place like that, but you also have a much 
     broader management base . . . because if there's an 
     international trust fund then there's an international board. 
     And if there's an international board, people are going to be 
     interested in keeping this place in a state that this fund 
     was set up to preserve. Over the years national governments 
     in Africa have shown great interest and have collaborated in 
     international conservation efforts in their countries. This 
     is seen as positive and we have had great success in the past 
     with these associations.
       And then the fourth thing is to actually establish a long-
     term presence on the ground, which again requires some sort 
     of international collaboration between the conservation 
     organization and the national government. It relies on 
     funding from the outside rather than inside the country. We 
     have a grant to pay for the ground action for the next three 
     years and the effort to negotiate the national park. So we're 
     making pretty good progress on our four prongs. But we've 
     only completed about 10 to 30 percent of the 100 percent that 
     we need to go on all four of those demands. So, there's still 
     a lot of work to be done.
       There are some positive elements to build on. Along the 
     megatransect route there are already some protected areas. 
     The idea is to preserve and fully protect about one tenth of 
     the entire forest. We need to be pragmatic by setting 
     reasonable targets that we can accomplish.
                                  ____



                                   Conservation International,

                                    Washington, DC, June 26, 2002.
     Hon. Bill Frist,
     U.S. Senate, 416 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, 
         DC
       Dear Senator Frist: Conservation International applauds 
     your leadership in sponsoring legislation to strengthen the 
     Tropical Forest Conservation Act (TFCA). Through making 
     nonconcessional debt eligible for TFCA treatment, this 
     legislation paves the way for substantial conservation gains 
     by allowing additional countries to participate in debt-for-
     nature swaps.
       Gabon is a good example. The country contains some of the 
     world's most pristine and biologically important tropical 
     forests--forests that shelter an incredible diversity of 
     wildlife including populations of gorillas and chimpanzees so 
     wild as to never before have encountered human beings. 
     Protecting Gabon's forests is an urgent priority of the 
     conservation community. It is also important to Gabon's 
     future. These forests are essential to maintaining 
     hydrological patterns, protecting water quality and quantity, 
     and offering development opportunities in the form of a 
     potentially significant exotourism market. As you well know, 
     their exploitation poses an additional risk of exposing human 
     beings to deadly disease. In fact, the most recent Ebola 
     outbreak occurred in Gabon.
       Gabon should be a strong candidate for debt relief under 
     the Tropical Forest Conservation Act: it has abundant, 
     critical, and threatened tropical forests; it has a stable 
     political regime; it seeks resources for conservation; and it 
     owes debts to the United States. Unfortunately, the TFCA's 
     narrow construction prohibits Gabon from seeking debt 
     treatment under the Act. Your legislation would change this.
       Conservation International has a long history of 
     participating in debt-for-nature swaps and has significant 
     private resources to bring to the table in support of public/
     private partnerships under the TFCA. In fact, we recently 
     worked with The Nature Coservancy and World Wildlife Fund to 
     contribute a total of $1.1 million to a TFCA deal in Peru, 
     which leveraged $5.5 million in U.S. Government funds and 
     generated $10.6 million in local currency payments for 
     conservation of Peru's forests. With passage of your 
     legislation. CI anticipates additional opportunities to work 
     with the U.S. and key tropical forest countries to 
     simultaneously achieve conservation and debt relief.
       Thank you once again for your leadership.
           Sincerely,
                                                  Nicholas Lapham,
                                       Senior Director for Policy.

                                 ______