Brazil, Donors Seek Ways to Improve Amazon Program
10/27/99
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Title: Brazil, donors seek ways to improve Amazon program
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: October 27, 1999
Byline: Joelle Diderich
BRASILIA - Brazil sat down yesterday with its partners in an
internationally funded Amazon protection programme to discuss ways to
better manage funds destined for projects to preserve the rain
forest.
Members of the Pilot Programme for the Preservation of Tropical
Forests (PP-G7), which include the world's top seven industrialised
nations, opened their talks in Brasilia.
"Today, we are in a situation where there are funds, but they are not
distributed at the necessary speed and degree," said Mary Allegretti,
Brazil's secretary of the Amazon region.
She said donors had committed $280 million to the programme since it
was created in 1991, but only $85 million had reached its
destination.
Delegates at the routine meeting said the main problem was paperwork,
which meant projects funded by various donor countries were often
held up for months.
"In contrast with other moments, when international cooperation was
always seen as a quest for funds, this year and at this meeting we
aren't talking about: 'We want funds.' We are discussing partnership
rules," Allegretti told reporters.
The Brazilian government has come up with a new plan under which it
would have more say in how money is handed out, reflecting growing
interest by state governments in managing the rain forest.
The European Commission's representative in Brazil, Rolf Timans, said
European countries approved giving Brazil greater responsibility over
the programme, provided the guidelines were clear.
"The joint aim must be to strengthen the authority of the Brazilian
government in this programme, but it must also be clear that we need
to further streamline procedures ... in order to speed up the
implementation of some programmes," Timans said.
Germany said the programme, the brainchild of former German
Chancellor Helmut Kohl, had turned Brazil into a world leader in the
management of tropical rain forests.
But representative Rainer Lotz said his country would welcome an
increase in contributions by other nations.
"It so happens that Germany is still the largest single donor and
some countries' contributions are below what we would like to see,"
said Lotz. "I am not unhappy, but the aspect of burden-sharing
perhaps needs some rethinking."
Individual financing for the programme varies wildly, with the brunt
of the burden carried by the European Union, which has pledged $74
million over the next five years excluding individual contributions
from member states.
By contrast, the United States contributes around $2 million per
year.