VOA标准英语2012--Central Africa Region Named World Heritage Site

 

Central Africa Region Named World Heritage Site

A region in Central Africa with some of the last great populations of forest elephants, gorillas¹ and chimpanzees has been declared a U.N. World Heritage Site. It consists of about 25 thousand square kilometers spanning the Republic of Congo, Cameroon and Central African Republic.

It’s called the Sangha Tri-National Protected Area complex, also known by the French acronym² TNS. It’s formed by three contiguous national parks that are linked by the Sangha River.

Wild Heart

James Deutsch, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Africa Program, calls the World Heritage Site the “wild heart of the Congo Basin Rainforest.”

“The Sangha Tri-National is one of only two or three areas left in the Congo Basin Rainforest that is physically³ intact in terms of both the forest cover and the trees. But more importantly also still has all of the wildlife populations, all of the different species for which the Congo Basin is so well known – elephants and gorillas and chimpanzees. And by many measures this area is really the most intact remaining large expanse of rainforest in Africa,” he said.

The Congo Basin is the world’s second largest rainforest after the Amazon.

Deutsch said that giving the TNS World Heritage Site status does several things.

“Probably most importantly, it commits the three countries – Cameroon, Congo-Brazzaville and the Central African Republic – to cherishing this area and helping⁴ to protect it in perpetuity. For any country, as that country faces the various trade-offs between industrial development and conservation, that kind of commitment is hugely important,” he said.

Poachers, loggers and HIV

But despite being a protected area consisting of national parks and now a World Heritage Site, the complex still faces threats.

Deutsch said, “Probably the most urgent threat that has really accelerated in the last few years has been elephant poaching because of an increase in demand for ivory in Asia and an increase in organized crime’s involvement in elephant poaching and ivory trafficking.”

Another major challenge facing the TNS is balancing conservation with the demand for commercial logging.

“The big problem with logging, with selective logging in particular, is that it opens up access to the forest to people to go in and remove the wildlife species,” he said.

However, when people go into places where humans do not normally tread, diseases can come out and affect the entire world.

“This exact area is, according to experts, the area where HIV made the jump from chimpanzees to humans sometime around a hundred years ago, probably as a result of people hunting chimps⁵. It’s also very near the focal area for the Ebola virus, which of course is hugely harmful to people, in fact lethal⁶ in 70, 80 percent of cases. And we don’t know what other pathogens, what other viruses and other potential diseases lurk⁷ in the forest and in the wildlife in the forest,” he said.

Deutsch says achieving World Heritage Site status for the Tri-National Protected Area complex took many years of hard work by the three countries, various governments and many groups and individuals. He adds it means the TNS is a world treasure.

1 gorillas   

n.大猩猩( gorilla的名词复数 )；暴徒，打手

参考例句：

• the similitude between humans and gorillas 人类和大猩猩的相像
• Each family of gorillas is led by a great silverbacked patriarch. 每个大星星家族都由一个魁梧的、长着银色被毛的族长带领着。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 acronym   

n.首字母简略词，简称

参考例句：

• That's a mouthful of an acronym for a very simple technology.对于一项非常简单的技术来说，这是一个很绕口的缩写词。
• TSDF is an acronym for Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facilities.TSDF是处理，储存和处置设施的一个缩写。

3 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

4 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

5 chimps   

（非洲）黑猩猩( chimp的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Chimps are too scarce, and too nearly human, to be routinely slaughtered for spare parts. 黑猩猩又太少，也太接近于人类，不可以作为人器官备用件说杀就杀。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 医学的第四次革命
• And as nonprimates, they provoke fewer ethical and safety-related concerns than chimps or baboons. 而且作为非灵长类，就不会产生像用黑猩猩或狒狒那样的伦理和安全方面的顾虑。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 医学的第四次革命

6 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。

7 lurk   

n.潜伏，潜行；v.潜藏，潜伏，埋伏

参考例句：

• Dangers lurk in the path of wilderness.在这条荒野的小路上隐伏着危险。
• He thought he saw someone lurking above the chamber during the address.他觉得自己看见有人在演讲时潜藏在会议厅顶上。