Aid creep in the Congo Basin (Rep. Ed Royce)

Back when I chaired the Africa Subcommittee, a key issue we stressed was good government on a continent desperately lacking it.  One way to promote accountability and transparency was to focus on Africa's diverse and magnificent landscapes, and encourage the creation of national parks.  Leaders would take better care of their lands, become more accountable to their people, and economic benefits from increased tourism would follow, the thinking went.  And Americans would win because we'll all lose (big) if central Africa becomes an environmental wasteland.  Central to this effort was something that came to be called the Congo Basin Forest Partnership.  So far, not bad.  

Tuesday on Capitol Hill, we were updated on the CBFP from experts in the field.  This bold initiative was launched in 2002, aimed at checking the clear-cut logging devastating previously untouched African forests.  The plants and animals in central Africa are invaluable for many reasons, including their genetic and biochemical information, which could spark technical advances in medicine, agriculture and industry.  Yet they're imperiled.  By one estimate, forest landscape twice the size of Rhode Island was being lost each and every year.  The CBFP put into place a framework designed to reverse this trend.  Participating countries set aside large swaths of land to be protected from harmful activities.  Gabon was a leader, setting aside 10 percent of its land to create 13 national parks.

Congo Basin forests continue to disappear, though it'd be worse without the CBFP.  As oil fields in some CBFP countries have run dry, governments have scrambled elsewhere seeking revenue, to the forests.  In Gabon, Sinopec, a Chinese state-run oil company has been prospecting for new oil reserves in a nature reserve.  You will be shocked to learn that Sinopec has been charged with polluting, massively.  Reserve areas have been dynamited to create roads, fueling the bush meat trade, creating "empty forests" where elephants, great apes, and buffaloes once lived.  China's role bears very close scrutiny.  Many CBFP players are operating from a premise that China can be "engaged" on this issue.  I have my doubts. 

CBFP's implementation needs checking.  One of the experts taking part in Tuesday's hearing told us that CBFP aid programs have become too removed from the core mission of protecting parks.  Instead of focusing on getting park rangers the equipment and training they need to combat poachers --and it's rough out there-- CBFP funds are backing health, education, and even microloans, things not central to conservation.  Goals must be kept focused.  Alas, that's not the way of government.  I'm going to investigate this CBFP mission creep.