    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [March 31, 1998]
    [Pages 476-479]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to African Environmentalists in Gaborone, Botswana
    March 31, 1998

        Thank you very much, Minister Kgoroba,
    for your leadership and your kind remarks. I certainly hope that our
    visit here will increase tourism in Botswana, not so much because my
    wife and I came but because we brought such a vast American delegation
    and a lot of members of our press corps. And I think I can speak for
    them--this may be the only subject on which I can speak for them, but I
    think I can speak for them--they had a wonderful time as well, and we're
    very grateful to you. [Laughter]
        Vice President Mogae, thank you for joining
    us, and congratulations about your assumption of office just in the next
    few hours. Minister Merahfe, Secretary
    Mpofu, Ambassador Mogwe, thank you all for making us feel welcome. I'd like
    to say a special thanks to Mr. and Mrs.
    Kirby and all the people associated with the
    Mokolodi Nature Preserve for making us feel so welcome here. This is a
    perfect place for our meeting.

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        I thank the distinguished delegation from the United States Congress
    and Secretary Slater and AID Administrator
    Atwood; Reverend Jesse Jackson; my National Security Adviser, Sandy Berger; and Assistant Secretary of State for African
    Affairs Susan Rice, Ambassador and Mrs. Krueger, and our
    entire American delegation for being here.
        And I would like to say a special word of thanks to the people who
    work day-in and day-out in environmental and preservation work who
    participated in our roundtable. And I'd like to introduce them. And I'll
    do my best to pronounce their names properly. If I don't, you'll just
    have to make allowances for me. They did a wonderful job.
        First, the Director of the Botswana Department of Wildlife and
    National Parks, Sedie Modise; from Cameroon,
    the Director of the United Nations Development Program's Office To
    Combat Desertification and Drought, Samuel Nyambi; from Ghana, professor of zoology at the University of
    Ghana and Chair of the Scientific and Technical Review Panel of the
    Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu; the resident representative for Conservation
    International from Madagascar, formerly Governor of the Central Bank of
    Madagascar, Minister of Finance, and when I first met him, the
    Ambassador of Madagascar to the United States, Leon
    Rajaobelina; and the Director of the
    African Conservation Centre of Kenya, Dr. Helen Gichohi.
        I think it's fair to say that none of us who visit Botswana will
    ever forget the beauty of the environment. Hillary and I and many of our
    party, as the Minister just said, have been reveling in the beauties of
    Chobe. And we do want to come back to the Okavango Delta. And we would
    like to see more of the Kalahari and more of the rest of the country. I
    think any human being who spends any appreciable amount of time in a
    uniquely pristine place, full of the wonders of animal and plant life,
    instinctively feel humanity's sacred obligation to preserve our
    environment. I have been deeply encouraged by what I have just heard in
    the meeting with Africa's--some of Africa's most distinguished and
    dedicated environmental experts as we discussed the challenges we all
    face in meeting our obligation to preserve the environment.
        There are challenges on every continent. Here in Africa, deserts are
    spreading; forests are shrinking; water is increasingly scarce. The
    needs of growing populations often clash with those of plants and
    animals. People's health is more at risk as pollutants poison water and
    air. And here, as everywhere, global warming threatens to aggravate
    droughts and floods and hasten the spread of infectious disease.
        American children in their imagination often travel to Africa. Since
    I was a boy, we have done that. The essence of what attracts them and
    people everywhere is a vision of the most magnificent, amazing creatures
    on Earth living in harmony with unspeakably beautiful nature, the vision
    we saw realized in Chobe. That vision of, somehow, nature in all of its
    manifestations in balance with people living their lives successfully
    inspires environmental efforts around the world.
        At the Rio Summit in 1992, for the first time, nations gathered to
    proclaim that each country's stewardship of its own environment affects
    the whole planet. Africans and Americans swim and fish in the same
    Atlantic Ocean, breathe the same air, suffer the same health risks from
    toxic chemicals, greenhouse gases, destruction of the ozone layer. If
    animal and plant species are lost, we are all diminished, even if they
    are lost on someone else's continent.
        Since Rio, real progress has been made in fulfilling our mutual
    obligations. Nations have banned dumping of radioactive waste. Nations
    are attacking water pollution, working to protect ocean life. We have
    reaffirmed the vital need for family planning. We have made real
    progress in reducing the destruction of the ozone layer.
        But we must do more. And today, very briefly, I'd like to focus on
    three concerns we Americans share with Africans: spreading deserts,
    threats to species, and global warming. First, with regard to deserts,
    27 percent of the African continent is desert--45 percent more, dry
    land, still arable but with limited water. The dry regions are rapidly
    succumbing to the desert, becoming wasteland, increasing the chances of
    famine and poverty. While climate change as a whole plays a role,
    agricultural practices--too much grazing, poor irrigation practices, too
    much tree clearing, failure to rotate crops--all these things play a
    pivotal role.
        These concerns are familiar to Americans. One hundred years ago when
    our settlers moved from east to west in the United States, they believed
    they found a paradise of rich, fertile soil. They planted and plowed the
    land without

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    any thought for the future. Then, in 1931, the rain stopped. Fields
    dried up. Our skies turned black. Dust filled people's lungs. Food was
    scarce. Thousands upon thousands of starving animals descended from the
    hills to compete with people for scrap. In April of 1935 blinding dirt
    blew 24 hours a day for 3 weeks. After all these years, that is still
    known to all Americans as our Dust Bowl. It was called America's Sahara.
        We couldn't make the rains return; that was nature's province. But
    we could and did, as a nation, institute strong soil conservation
    measures that have helped to protect us since. And we had an
    agricultural extension service of respected experts from each local
    community working with farmers to help them see that it was in their
    personal interest to preserve our common environment.
        A half century later, at the Rio Summit, with more and more arable
    land on the African Continent turning to dust, African leaders pressed
    the rest of the world for action. The world listened and crafted a
    treaty, the Desertification Convention, to help stop the spread of
    desert and the degrading of dry land. The treaty seeks to empower local
    communities and to channel foreign assistance to prevent overgrazing, to
    grow crops appropriate to the land, to use existing water supplies more
    wisely.
        I sent this treaty to our Senate for its approval in the summer of
    1996. No action has been taken since, but today I am pleased to announce
    that two distinguished Senators, one from each of our parties--Senator
    Jim Jeffords of Vermont and Senator Russ
    Feingold of Wisconsin--have agreed to
    lead a bipartisan effort for Senate approval. And I will do my best to
    get it approved as quickly as possible.
        In addition to protecting our land, we must preserve the plants and
    animals for their beauty and their benefit. As our participant from
    Madagascar reminded me today, the rosy periwinkle, found only on
    Madagascar, is a plant you likely would walk by without a second look.
    But extracts from this plant have proved critical to attacking Hodgkin's
    disease and childhood leukemia. It could have been lost entirely with no
    concern for biodiversity. A snakeroot plant found in India gives a drug
    that saves lives by lowering blood pressure. It can be lost entirely by
    ignoring the needs of biodiversity. Beyond such medical breakthroughs,
    there is majesty in God's creation and the balance of life biodiversity
    guarantees.
        Yesterday at Chobe, we saw some of Africa's most beautiful wild
    animals. I saw all the things that I dreamed of seeing, from elephants
    and hippos to giraffes and lions. But I also saw some animals I never
    knew existed before--the lechwe, the sable antelope, the kudu. I saw a
    monitor lizard. [Laughter] And I thought of all the people I would like
    that lizard to monitor. [Laughter] But, unfortunately, I could not catch
    it and take it home.
        I saw the magnificent secretary bird, a bird I had never seen
    before, and watched it in wonder. I saw the lilac-breasted roller fly
    and roll for us, and I wished everyone in the world--every child in the
    world and every child in Africa, especially--could have a chance to see
    these things free from the want of poverty, free from any necessity of
    their parents to think about doing things which would undermine the
    existence of those birds and animals for all time.
        The rest of the world thanks Botswana for its hard work to address
    these problems. Under the guidance of President Masire, Minister Kgoroba, Defense
    Force Commander Khama, Botswana has set aside
    large portions of its lands and parks, worked to stop poachers, promoted
    sustainable use of resources, is working with neighboring nations to
    protect rivers, ground water, forests, and other resources they share.
        Because such efforts are not easy, they must be supported. This year
    America will invest more than $80 million to help African nations
    protect their natural bounty. And we all should do more.
        Across the continents, nations are also awakening to the connection
    between conservation and democracy as local communities share power with
    national governments in managing wildlife and water, forest and
    farmland. When people have a chance to decide, more often than not, they
    actually decide to protect what is precious to their way of life.
        The United States has helped to empower African communities on
    environmental matters and will increase our efforts with a new
    initiative called Green Communities for Africa, based on a program
    already working back home. The program helps citizens in each community
    consider the environmental consequences of all kinds of local decisions,
    from disposing wastes to providing clean drinking water.

    [[Page 479]]

        Finally, we must act together to address the threat of global
    climate change. The overwhelming consensus of the world's scientific
    community is that greenhouse gases from human activity are raising the
    Earth's temperature at a troubling, rapid rate. And unless we change
    course, seas will rise so high they will swallow islands and coastal
    areas the world over, destroying entire communities and habitats. Storms
    and droughts will intensify. Diseases like malaria, Africa's terrible
    scourge, already killing almost 3,000 children per day, will be borne by
    mosquitoes to higher and higher altitudes and will travel across more
    and more national borders, threatening more lives on this continent and
    throughout the world. No nation can escape these dangers; therefore, all
    must work to prevent them.
        As the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, the United States has a
    special responsibility to our own people and the rest of the world to
    act. We are implementing an aggressive plan to reduce greenhouse gas
    emissions with programs for energy efficiency and clean technology. But
    it is a global problem that requires global solutions. We must reduce
    emissions in the developed world and promote clean energy development in
    the developing world.
        Under the historic agreement reached last December in Kyoto,
    companies have strong incentives to invest in clean energy projects not
    only in the developed countries but in developing countries. The United
    States also plans to provide $1 billion over 5 years to help developing
    countries to combat global warming.
        Today I'm pleased to announce that NASA, our space agency, together
    with our partners from southern Africa, will conduct the first-ever
    environmental review of this part of the continent, using satellites in
    space and ground surveillance. The results will provide a baseline from
    which to measure changes in the environment, improve seasonal drought
    predictions, and help to assess the impact of climate change. We can and
    we must work together to realize the promise of Kyoto.
        A generation ago, our leaders began to realize this would become an
    issue we would all have to face. President Kennedy said, ``It is our
    task to hand undiminished to those who come after us the natural wealth
    and beauty which is ours.'' In other words, the natural wealth and
    beauty which is ours is not really ours. It belongs to the people who
    came before us, who live on in our memory, and to our children and
    grandchildren and their grandchildren which will come after.
        In the United States, many of our Native American population say
    that they manage their own natural resources with seven generations in
    view. They think, in other words, about how today's decisions will
    affect their children seven generations down the line. We can at least
    think of our grandchildren.
        We have a serious responsibility to deal with poor people in a
    respectful way the world over because everyone deserves the right to try
    to advance his or her material condition so that all of our children can
    have decent lives and get decent education and build a decent future.
    But we know from the scientific data available to us today that we can
    grow the economy at a rate that sustains both economic well-being and
    our natural resources. Indeed, we know that if we maximize the use of
    scientific technology and knowledge, we can grow the economy and even
    improve the condition of the natural environment.
        That is our responsibility. It has come to our generation to make
    these decisions now so that future generations will enjoy all the
    wonderful technological advances of the 21st century. But first, we must
    act, and we must do it together.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:45 p.m. at the Mokolodi Nature Preserve.
    In his remarks, he referred to the following Botswana Government
    officials: Minister of Commerce & Industry George Kgoroba; Vice
    President Festus Mogae; Minister of Foreign Affairs Mompati Merahfe;
    Permanent Secretary at the Department of Foreign Affairs Ernest Mpofu;
    Ambassador to the U.S. Archibald Mogwe; President Ketumile Masire; and
    former Defense Force Commander Ian Khama, currently Minister for
    Presidential Affairs and Public Administration. The President also
    referred to Ian Kirby, founder of the preserve; and U.S. Ambassador
    Robert Krueger and his wife, Kathleen. A tape was not available for
    verification of the content of these remarks.