Remarks on the Launch of President Bush's Initiative Against Illegal Logging

Thank you so very much, John, for that very, very warm introduction, and let me begin by thanking you for the superb leadership that you have been providing on these issues of science, the environment, healthcare for people around the world, and on this particular initiative that we are launching here today.

I've just come from Capitol Hill, where I was in the House of Representatives in the well speaking to some 600 young summer interns who are working up at Capitol Hill. I look forward to that event every year to have these bright faces looking at you and wanting to learn all about foreign policy.

And I talked to them about foreign policy, but I also talked to them about the legacy that we are leaving to them, their responsibilities to continue this nation, moving forward, our system moving forward, this world moving forward. And it's so appropriate as we talk about legacy and as we talk about the obligations we have to that which has been given to us by a benevolent God that we talk about this initiative here this afternoon.

So I am very, very pleased to be here and very, very pleased to welcome you all to the State Department.

John made a passing reference to our trip last year to Gabon where we launched the Congo Basin Initiative. And I was looking forward to that trip. It was at the end of the Conference on Sustainability in South Africa where a couple of Americans heckled me -- (laughter) -- but it was a great conference and we put down a lot of superb initiatives on water and sustainable development, and then I went up to Gabon to have a nice, pleasant afternoon where I could see this marvelous initiative, where I could walk through the forest trails with Michael Fay and enjoy the elephants and the birds and the alligators and all the other critters that were going to come out and say hello. Michael promised.

But, as John noted, I have a very effective security operation, and between the helicopters flying overhead, the boats along the coast, people walking with submachine guns all over the forest, there was not a single mosquito within 500 yards of my location. (Laughter.) It is a beautiful, pristine forest; it does not even have animals in it at the moment. (Laughter.) I hope they have now discovered that I am not returning anytime soon and they can go back to their natural habitat. And in my retirement, whenever that comes, I look forward to returning to Gabon and have a more pleasant, animal-filled experience with Michael Fay.

Your excellencies. Distinguished guests. Ladies and gentlemen. It is really good to welcome you here, and especially on this occasion where we launch President Bush's Initiative Against Illegal Logging.

This initiative reaffirms America's leadership, and President Bush's leadership, in fighting environmental crime and promoting democratic principles. This is the right initiative at the right time.

The World Bank estimates that illegal logging costs developing countries some $10-15 billion every year in lost resources and in lost revenues. That’s $10-15 billion every year they cannot devote, they cannot spend on educating their children, they cannot allocate to healing their sick, they cannot use to protect their environment. That's $10-15 billion a year stolen from legitimate forest products businesses.

But the toll goes far beyond mere dollars and cents. Such blatant disregard for the law weakens governments, encourages corruption, undermines democracy, and then, in turn, saps the faith of the people in the democratic system. It wreaks havoc on the fragile environment, destroying watersheds, devastating wildlife, and demolishing livelihoods.

Revenues from illegal logging also finance regional conflicts that devastate entire societies and plant despair in the hearts of millions of people who are in need.

You have undoubtedly read the newspaper reports from Liberia and you have viewed the heart-rending scenes on television. According to reports from groups such as Global Witness and the International Crisis Group, Liberia's Charles Taylor has used revenues from the timber industry, which is now under UN sanctions, to buy arms and fuel violence throughout the region.

In the process, Liberia's logging industry is depleting its hardwood tropical forest on behalf of a corrupt elite and destroying an important source of the natural wealth the people of Liberia need for their own development and will need desperately once we are able to put a ceasefire in place, and ECOWAS peacekeepers supported by the United States are able to put a political transformation process in place as well. It's amazing, however, how groups like Conservation International have been able to accomplish in places like Liberia, even under these most difficult circumstances.

The impact of these crimes -- and let's call them for what they are -- crimes -- the impact of these crimes does not stop with the land and the people of the forest that has been despoiled. We are all impoverished whenever environmental crime creates a tree that absorbs carbon dioxide and destroys that tree, destroys that tree and removes the replenishing value that that tree provides to our atmosphere and its life-giving oxygen that comes out from our vegetation. We are all at risk when deforestation plants the seed of despair in a new human heart.

The initiative we have developed is a remarkable example of collaboration between the United States Government, the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations. Over 50 groups contributed to this work.

And I would especially like at this time to thank Conservation International and the American Forest and Paper Association for their work in demonstrating the critical importance of preserving protected forest areas. They have helped us prioritize our efforts to make sure that we focus on the types of illegal logging that cause the most damage to businesses and the environment, while offering the easiest routes to detection and prevention of illegal logging. I am very pleased that the leaders of these two organizations, Russ Mittemeier and Henson Moore, are on today's program with me.

And I am also delighted that Katherine Fuller of the World Wildlife Fund will be speaking today, completing a trio with a powerful message of hope and commitment.

With the initiative we are rolling out today, we will work with developing countries to combat illegal logging, halt the sale and export of illegally harvested timber, and fight corruption in the forest sector. We will attack the root cause of illegal logging -- the weakness of institutions and democratic governance in so many developing nations.

The problem is global in scope, and so is the President's initiative. But we have to start somewhere, so we will initially focus our efforts on the most critical regions, namely the Congo Basin, the Amazon Basin and Central America, and South and Southeast Asia.

In these regions, we will help governments establish sound laws to manage and protect their forests. For example, we will work with Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, and Guatemala to help them protect their big leaf mahogany trees, in compliance with their international obligations, while still benefiting from legal trade in this valuable resource.

But laws without enforcement are but hollow gestures, so we will also help countries build their capacity to give their laws teeth through enforcement. To that end, we will transfer remote sensing technology to help monitor forest activity. Indeed, we have already agreed to partner with the World Resources Institute, through the International Tropical Timber Organization, to provide integrated remote sensing and ground-based monitoring in the Congo Basin.

The Earth's forests are the patrimony of all, and we will work with community leaders to make sure that the people most affected have a say in managing their forests. Our goal is to set in motion a virtuous circle in which people take pride in their forests and accept responsibility for managing them in a responsible manner. So in Bangladesh, for example, we will put in place a community-based forest management and protection program in areas that are threatened by illegal logging.

We will also harness market forces to give people an incentive, an incentive to preserve the forests for their long-term benefit, not chop them down indiscriminately for short-term -- and short-sighted -- gain. In Colombia, for example, we will help local communities and legal logging operators manage protected forest areas.

We have budgeted nearly $19 million -- I should say $15 million for 19 programs to get this initiative off to a good start. But this is just the beginning. As we demonstrate the success of our approach, we will work with Congress to secure additional funding for a full range of programs, including programs targeted at protected forest areas.

To be effective, these programs will take time, and they will require true partnerships -- partnerships such as the one that USAID has struck in Peru with the World Wildlife Fund and Home Depot, Anderson Windows, and others to implement a new forest-protection strategy.

These new programs are not springing up in a vacuum. They build on America's record of leadership in combating illegal logging -- leadership shown in the G-8 with the program of action on forest conservation that we have initiated in the G-8 forum, leadership shown in bringing together the 2001 South Asia Ministerial Conference on Forest Law Enforcement and Governance, leadership provided by our work on the Africa Forest Law Enforcement Ministerial which will be held in Cameroon this October.

Nor do these new programs start from scratch. They will support and build on existing successful projects, such as the Congo Basin Forest Partnership of 29 committed governments and separate organizations, which I had the privilege of launching last year.

President Bush's initiative will also complement our ongoing bilateral work with countries around the globe, such as our efforts under the Tropical Forest Conservation Act. With this innovative program, debt reduction can free up funds for forest conservation. Nongovernmental organizations are also contributing to this sum. We have already entered into agreements with six countries to generate over $60 million for forest conservation.

My friends, we have a special bond with our environment, linked forever with our love of democracy. It runs in our blood. It is part of who we are as a people.

Looking around this room, I know that that is a sentiment that we all share together. That is why you are here.

So let there be no doubt that President Bush and his administration take our obligation very seriously to protect and preserve this treasured environment of ours.

The President's Initiative Against Illegal Logging is yet another major example of his commitment to fight environmental crime and to promote democratic principles. Your participation, like your presence here today, is yet another major example of your commitment, a commitment that we thank you for, a commitment that we look forward to enhancing with you in the partnerships that I hope will come out of the initiative that we are announcing here today.

And so I thank you for being here today, and I hope you enjoy the rest of our program. Thank you so much.