Action Alert: Rainforest Destruction With EU Taxpayers' Money
5/14/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Action Alert: Rainforest Destruction With EU Taxpayers'
Money
Source: Rainforest Relief
Status: Distribute freely with credit given to source
Date: May 14, 1999
Dear friends,
With the taxpayers' money the EU plans to give a 55 million ECU grant
to Cameroon for road projects.
Cameroon has not declared which roads it want to build or
rehabilitate, nor do environmental assessment studies exist for
these projects.
In the past, the EU has already funded such road projects. For
example the EU gave 600 000 ECU for the rehabilitation of the Abong
Mbang road to Lomie in the Cameroon rainforests. As a consequence,
illegal timber consessions and poaching have expanded rapidly. BBC
and German TV stations have documented the immense damage and the
poaching of gorillas and chimps. The pygmy population loses its life-
supporting resources from the forest and its social organisation is
uprooted.
The EU Development Fund plans to discuss the grant for the next 55
million ECU in mid June.
Please protest with your government. Request that the details of the
road projects be discussed publicly. Request that full envrironmental
assessment studies be made before the grant is approved. Request that
Cameroon demonstrates effective control of poaching and illegal
logging before the grant is approved.
You could also address your protest to the German development
minister who is currently Chair of the EU Development Council:
Frau Ministerin Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul
Bundesministerium fur wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung
(BMZ) Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 40, 53113 Bonn Telefon: 0228-535-3311
Fax: 0228-535-3325 email: poststelle@bmz.bund400.de (pelase repeat
adress in email)
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Here is a also an URGENT ACTION from The Rainforest Foundation in
this matter, which we forward to you:
Having already helped wreck the rainforests around the World Heritage
Dja Biosphere Reserve, the European Commission is now proposing a
massive new aid programme of road-upgrades in the south of Cameroon.
The Commission has no plans to even conduct Environmental Impact
Assessments before proceeding with the roads. The roads are aimed at
aimed at helping poor farmers, but they simply encourage logging
companies to move into unexploited areas - many of which are
inhabited by Baka pygmies. The 55 million ECU project is expected to
be considered by the European Development Fund committee within the
next two months.
Please write, calling for a suspension of new road projects in
Cameroon's rainforests, to: Joao de Deus Pinheiro, Commissioner for
Development Cooperation, The European Commission, rue de le Loi 200,
1049 Brussels, Belgium.
For more information:
The Foundation's website at www.rainforestfoundationuk.org contains
sound clips about the impact of a previous EU-funded road project in
Cameroon, and a briefing on the latest threats.
The Rainforest Foundation UK (rainforestuk@gn.apc.org)
City Cloisters
188 Old Street
London EC1V 9FR
T: +44 171 251 6345
F: +44 171 251 4969