G7 to Meet in Amazon to Review Development Program
10/27/97
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Headline: G7 to Meet in Amazon to Review Development Program
Source: Reuters
Date: 10/27/97
Author: Michael Christie
Copyright: Reuters Limited 1997
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil and the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized
nations meet in the Amazonian capital of Manaus next week to agree on the
next stage of a program promoting sustainable development in the rain
forest.
The annual meeting of G7 donors to the so-called Pilot Program (G7-PP),
administered by the World Bank, begins formally on Tuesday, with Monday
dedicated to presentations by Brazilian government officials of projects in
the Amazon.
"When we speak of the future, that means completing and consolidating
current projects and thinking about Phase Two of the G7-PP," Brazilian
Environment Minister Gustavo Krause said.
Starting six years ago, the program has given out $181.3 million of a total
of $250 million pledged to fund projects such as the demarcation of Indian
reserves and protecting artesanal fishing communities from large-scale
competitors.
The rest is earmarked and one of the aims of the three-day meeting will be
to identify new sources of money and coax fresh funds out of Germany, the
United States, the European Union (EU), Japan, Italy, the Netherlands,
Britain and Canada.
Germany has financed the bulk of projects, contributing 35 percent of the
total and even more as the principal economic power in the European Union.
The United States, despite spending pledges made by President Bill Clinton
on a visit to Brazil earlier this month, lags in fourth place, behind the
EU and Japan.
Environmental pressure groups said the most important aspect of the meeting
was an apparently growing consensus over a proposal to establish zones in
the gigantic Amazon river basin.
They say Pilot Program managers are resigned to the fact Brazil will pursue
large-scale infrastructure projects in the rain forest, including paving a
road from Manaus to Venezuela and river-widening projects to boost soybean
exports. "It seems important that the realities of the Amazon region and of
its political weight and significance must be taken into account if
effective conservation of at least a good part of the Amazon are to be
achieved," the World Bank's Rain Forest Unit said in a memorandum seen by
Reuters.
The infrastructure projects basically correspond to what the bank calls
"development corridors" where the "objective is to increase and
geographically concentrate economic activity".
Such corridors would be counter-balanced by "conservation corridors" where
biodiversity would be protected.
In between, in so-called "inter-corridor spaces", the Rain Forest Unit
suggests policies should make sure economic activity that preserves as much
of the forest as possible becomes more attractive than clearing land for
agriculture.
A concrete task set by the officials meeting in Manaus is to decide when
Phase Two of the program will begin.
They must also decide what type of transition is needed to blend Phase One
projects into a broader, cohesive program that fits into the Brazilian
government's plans for the region.