Abraham Foundation Conservation Prize Ceremony

Ambassador Roger A. Meece’s Remarks
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – International Conference Hall
Sunday, 18 February 2007: 19h00

Representative of the Minister of the Environment,
Fellow Ambassadors,
Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations in DRC,
Managing Director of the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN),
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am honored to share this podium tonight with such distinguished speakers.  We have gathered to pay homage to relatively unknown heroes, who will now be known, thanks to the Alexander Abraham Foundation.   Their stories, as they unfold tonight, will help us better understand man’s place in nature. 

The history of thought will show that the photograph we have all seen of Earth, taken by astronauts from lunar orbit in 1968, helped spark the modern Environmental Movement, which soon swept the U.S., France, and other countries.  That photograph and that movement convinced a large public that humans are indeed stewards of this rather small, blue globe which sustains our lives.

The environmental movement of the late 1960s was preceded by clairvoyant acts of stewardship, to be sure.  A hundred years before, in 1872, the United States Congress created the world’s first national park, Yellowstone, situated in the American West.  Africa’s first national park, Virunga, was created in 1925.  It was soon followed by Garamba and Upemba national parks, all created before the Congo’s independence. 

Unfortunately, these and the many successive parks created in the Congo after independence suffered tremendously during the long years of conflict.   Human insecurity, sadly, still threatens the existence of hippos, elephants, okapis, gorillas, and other rare animal and plant species in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Enter our heroes.  During the period of outright war in the DRC, the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN), national park personnel and international partners gathered resources necessary to provide some protection to the five World Heritage sites in the DRC, all of which were threatened by militias and refugies.  (Note: The five are Virunga, Garamba, Kahuzi-Biega, Salonga, and Okapi Faunal Reserve.)

The laureates we honor tonight sustained conservation efforts at considerable risk, not only in these World Heritage sites, but in other nature reserves; not only as park officials, but also as independent citizens.  Several of them were killed for their dedication, and we honor them posthumously.

I can best underscore the importance of their devotion to nature conservation by saying that my government is helping.  Since the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002, and in support of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership, the United States has mounted the Central African Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE).  CARPE’s objective is to reduce the rate of forest degradation and loss of biodiversity, by supporting conservation and sustainable management of natural resources in the tropical areas of nine countries in Central Africa.  We believe that conservation of resources alleviates poverty and builds capacity.  This Program will last for several more years, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars.  The investment made by these individual laureates, in the cause of nature conservation, inspires ours.

When thinking about this ceremony, before coming tonight, it occurred to me that most of the official paintings, which I chose, hanging on the walls of my residence are American landscapes: nine paintings by three very different contemporary American artists depicting marshes, forests, hills, and deserts from Ohio to New Mexico.   One, of a simple field, is entitled “Land That I Love.”

We understand man’s place in nature in different ways.  The laureates we honor tonight have, through their devotion, taught us all a simple lesson, that love for the land is a quality we should strive for, if we are to save our Earth.

My thanks go to the Abraham Foundation for organizing this event, to those who have traveled long distances to be here this evening, and to all of you here attending.  And most of all, thanks and congratulations to those who have worked so hard to further conservation interests in the Congo and beyond, and who well deserve the recognition accorded them this evening.  Thank you.