I'd like to thank the National Press Club and its president, Richard Ryan, as well as Emily Murray, for allowing me to speak to you this afternoon on an issue that is very important to me: the bushmeat crisis in Africa. Unsustainable hunting has become the most immediate threat to the future of wildlife on the continent. "Bushmeat," which refers to all African wildlife species used for meat, is a wildlife and human crisis on the continent. It's causing wildlife extinction and disease transmission from animals to humans. While this crisis is devastating in its magnitude, there are many factors contributing to the crisis, making it a challenge to resolve. Economics, population growth, industry, local traditions, hunting regulations, and government policies all play a role in this complex issue. To eliminate the illegal killing of wildlife for commercial gain there is a ground-breaking effort in the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force.

I am speaking to you today on their behalf, because the work of this group in only two years has nevertheless created some remarkable results. Only yesterday the BCTF concluded their 2001 international collaborative action planning meeting. Later in this presentation, I will share with you the results of this meeting, which are being reported to you here for the very first time.

You may be wondering why an actress like me is reporting to you about a crisis that is happening thousands of miles away. While acting is my career, I actually lead a double life, one that is dedicated to wildlife conservation in Africa and around the world. Ever since my childhood I have had a love for animals, both domestic and wild. But it wasn't until I met the late actor William Holden that my interest in Africa and conservation really heightened. In honor of his memory, I co-founded the William Holden Wildlife Foundation, and today I serve as its president. It was Bill's dedication to preventing species extinction that affected me so deeply.

With the dedication of the William Holden Wildlife Foundation to education and conserving wildlife in Africa, we were dismayed to discover in recent years the dramatic increase -- and the widespread -- of illegal hunting and the trading of meat from wild animals, otherwise known as "bushmeat." This practice proliferates throughout Africa, especially where large tracts of logging are in progress. It is this practice of overexploitation of natural resources that exposes new and virgin environments where wildlife has sought refuge, wildlife that in many cases is threatened or endangered.

The bushmeat crisis is probably something that isn't familiar to everyone. Allow me to take a step back and explain. In Africa, natural land is often referred to as "the bush." Thus wildlife and the meat derived from it is referred to as "bush meat." This term applies to all wildlife species, including many of those that are threatened and endangered. These species are used for meat, including elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, other primates, forest antelope, bush pig, porcupine, monitor lizards and various other species.

Through habitat loss -- and it is often cited that habitat loss is the primary cause of wildlife extinction, the illegal commercial hunting for the meat of wild species has become the most immediate threat to the future of wildlife populations in Africa. Wildlife has been hunted for food ever since humans first evolved, and wildlife is still viewed as a resource for free food for the taking.

Today in Africa bushmeat continues to be an economically important food and a trade item for thousands of poor, rural and urban families. Animal parts are also important in their rituals, and bushmeat has become a status symbol for the urban elite trying to retain links to the village often commanding extremely high prices in city restaurants.

Africa, as many of you know, has one of the highest population rates in the world -- some 30 million people live within the forested regions of Central Africa. Forty to 60 percent live in cities and towns; and most rely on the meat. Wildlife is a primary source of animal protein. Forest antelope, pigs and primates are most often eaten, and as many as one million metric tons of wildlife is killed for food in that region every year.

West African wildlife populations have been so depleted by years of unsustainable hunting for meat that the bushmeat is no longer the most important source of protein in the family diets; it simply doesn't exist. When bushmeat is eaten in West Africa, rodents have replaced the over-hunted and now scarce antelope and primates as the most commonly eaten wildlife.

In East and southern Africa the same factors driving the bushmeat crisis elsewhere are evident: poverty, lack of economic alternatives, protein sources and, after three years of drought, the demand is no longer relegated to traditional or subsistence communities, but it has become an integral part of trade and of economic activity throughout both rural and urban communities.

Logging is an economically important land usage throughout West and Central Africa; but it is also a major threat to wildlife throughout the world. Present selective logging practices not only result in increased consumption of bushmeat within concession areas; but also it facilitates the supply of bushmeat to urban markets and enhances the profitability of the trade.

Logging progresses like a wave over the landscape. As timber companies enter into unlogged areas in search of the few valuable trees that are scattered throughout the forest, once these rare trees are logged the company quickly moves to another area.

This road-building activity both heavily fragments the forest and it opens it up to hunters. A hunting trip for bushmeat that might have taken days to complete before the arrival of the loggers may be reduced to just a few hours. In addition, with the help of the logging company drivers and their vehicles, hunters no longer have to carry dead animals for long distances, and can kill many more animals on each trip.

There is documented evidence that logging companies not only directly increase demand for meat by hiring a large work force; they also greatly facilitate their workers' entry into the commercial trade to supply bushmeat to urban markets. This is the scenario that existed decades ago in West Africa, and it's what contributed to the widespread and dramatic declines in wildlife populations evidenced there today.

Advocacy and media attention at the international level has encouraged several multinational companies to develop partnerships with conservation NGOs to design and implement activities to curb the flow of bushmeat from concessions, and to provide logging company workers and their families with alternatives to bushmeat.

A code of good conduct for logging companies who are active in the region is also being developed. Rising demand for bushmeat, lack of economic options for rural and urban communities, the absence of affordable substitutes, the opening up of frontier forests by logging and mining companies and the fact that anyone can hunt almost anywhere and trade the meat with few if any restrictions, are the most important factors driving the commercial hunting and working against wildlife conservation.

So, what can be done, and what should be the next step to eliminating the illegal commercial bushmeat trade? The Bush Meat Crisis Task Force is a major step forward. The BCTF was formed just over two years ago as a result of meetings hosted by the American

Zoological and Aquarium Association. The AZA called together a group of the world's leading experts on bushmeat in order to identify what actions could be taken to address the bushmeat crisis. At the conclusion of that meeting the Bush Meat Crisis Task Force was born. The BCTF, as a consortium of conservation organizations and scientists dedicated to the conservation of wildlife populations threatened by commercial hunting of wildlife for sale as meat. I mentioned earlier that the BCTF had just concluded yesterday its international collaborative action planning meeting. I am honored to deliver to you the results of this meeting and their recommendations for ending the bushmeat crisis.

This level of international cooperation and collaboration is significant. True conservation of wildlife cannot take place without it. The additional goal of the BCTF meeting was to develop a four-year action plan to partner with other African members in leveraging limited human and financial resources, so members can work together as efficiently as possible to develop and implement solutions to the bushmeat crisis.

To do so BCTF members will spend the next three months assessing their own plans and will report specific commitments back to the international collaborative. At that time an integrated plan for international action will be crafted. The primary goals identified by the BCTF for the plan are the general education of key international decision makers and support of its members' efforts in the areas of public education, proposed development, catalyzing action locally, and information dissemination and archiving.

The group details specific long-term and short-term actions to take place in both the United States and Africa. Long-term actions include new wildlife management policy development; sustainable financing for conservation activities; public education and protected area management and monitoring; short-term actions including forming hunter and market seller trade associations, building the physical and technical capacity to control trade routes, brokering linkage among non-governmental organizations, governments and private industries, public outreach and raising awareness and developing economic and protein alternatives. Specific steps included in the plan are: assisting in the development of national wildlife policies, addressing food security and poverty reduction issues, and strengthening existing wildlife protection. I know from personal experience that these steps will make a definable difference. Awareness of the bushmeat crisis must permeate the global community.

The crisis goes beyond conservation issues. So the solutions must involve groups ranging from the World Bank, the IMF, to arms organizations to humanitarian aid groups. This is crucial that Americans become involved in solving the bushmeat crisis. There is no way to set a value for Africa's wildlife. While it's impossible for most of us to picture the world without it, we are faced with that very real possibility within our lifetime. Beyond the beauty and intrinsic value of nature, we must acknowledge that we are dependent upon Africa's resources in many ways, some very visible -- gold, diamonds, woods, and for the minerals used in making capacitors used in cellular phones.

I believe that Bill Holden would be quite proud of the BCTF and their call to action to end the bushmeat crisis and to preserve wildlife. I know that I am certainly proud of their achievements and goals for the future. Bill once was quoted to say, "wildlife is an echo of our own beginnings." His statement is a true reflection of our past. Let us learn from our past and eliminate the bushmeat crisis, and secure the future for our wildlife.

Thank you.

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