AIDS Research Threatened by World Bank Project
9/9/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: AIDS Research Threatened by World Bank Project
Source: Global Response "Quick Response Network"
P.O. Box 7490
Boulder CO, USA 80306-7490
Phone: 303/444-0306
Fax: 303/449-9794
http://www.globalresponse.org
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: September 9, 1999
A proposed oil project by the World Bank threatens the rainforest
home of chimpanzees that may hold the key to a cure for AIDS.
Fortunately, the Bank responds to public input, and your letter to
the Bank's President can influence the final decision.
The World Bank's official mission is to "alleviate poverty and
promote environmentally sound development." Yet the Bank proposes to
award loans in October for Exxon, Shell, and Elf oil companies to
build an oil pipeline from southern Chad through Cameroon's
rainforests to the sea. The main beneficiaries of the pipeline would
be corrupt governments and multinational oil companies, with little
hope of adequate environmental protection or economic benefits for
needy people.
The 600-mile pipeline would originate in Chad's "breadbasket," the
fertile region where most of the country's food is grown. Inevitable
oil spills and groundwater contamination would threaten that food
supply.
In Cameroon, the pipeline would pass through ecologically fragile
rainforests, including a region where indigenous nomadic Baka and
Bakola peoples (often referred to as Pygmies) live. Existing roads
would be upgraded and new roads built along the pipeline route. On
these new roads, loggers and commercial "bushmeat" hunters will
immediately rush into previously inaccessible areas, cutting
rainforest and shooting endangered chimpanzees, gorillas, elephants
and black rhinos for the money their
meat brings.
Destruction of the Cameroon rainforest would be especially tragic
because AIDS researchers believe that a cure for AIDS is to be found
there. Scientists have discovered the HIV-1 virus in Cameroon's
chimpanzees. The chimps are genetically almost identical to humans,
yet the AIDS virus doesn't make them sick. Scientists hope to
develop cures and treatments for AIDS by studying these chimpanzees
in their rainforest homes.
Environmental and human rights organizations in Central Africa are
asking for help in stopping this damaging project. In Chad, over 200
people have been killed for opposing the pipeline. It's up to us,
who face no such drastic consequences, to speak out against this
project. Readers are requested to write a brief letter to the
president of the World Bank, asking him to withhold financing for the
Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline because:
£ it would further impoverish Central African people by
contaminating their land, destroying forest resources, and diverting
badly needed funds to oil companies
£ chimpanzees in Cameroon's forests are believed to hold the key to
a cure for AIDS; the project threatens them and their habitat by
opening access to loggers and bushmeat hunters
. the World Bank must live up to its mission by financing projects
that provide nutrition, health, education, and environmentally sound
development for African people - not benefits for oil companies.
Such letters have proved to be powerful in stopping harmful actions
by the World Bank and others. Without World Bank funding, the Chad-
Cameroon pipeline will likely fail. The World Bank is the key.
For the address and more information, contact Global Response at
303/444-0306, or find the information at http://
www.globalresponse.org.
Global Response is a remarkably effective international letter-
writing network of environmentally concerned people. Our letters
influence decisions that affect the environment and indigenous
peoples around the world. Children, teenagers and classrooms, as
well as adults, can join in Global Response's letter campaigns.