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FOREST CONSERVATION NEWS TODAY

Brazil Proposes Debt Swap for Environmental Protections

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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org, Inc.

http://forests.org/ -- Forest Conservation Portal

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10/26/01

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Forests.org

Brazil's government is signaling a willingness to pursue

ecological protections in exchange for debt reduction. In the

past, there has been reluctance on the part of the government to

discuss such arrangements. Should this eventuate, it would a

highly significant development. The World's governments and

multi-lateral financial organizations should seize this

opportunity at once. Future benefits from maintaining large,

intact and fully operable rainforest ecosystems are vast and

critical for Planetary well-being. Establishment of relatively

modest revenue streams to compensate countries that maintain their

forests would help ensure global ecological sustainability and

security. Failure to do so is likely to lead to widespread future

ecosystem collapse and social disruption.

g.b.

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Title: Brazil proposes swapping foreign debt for environmental

protections

Source: Copyright 2001 Associated Press

Date: October 24, 2001

Byline: Michael Astor, Associated Press

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Swapping foreign debt for ecological

protections could ease developing countries' financial burdens and

save the rainforests at the same time, Brazil's environment

minister said Monday.

"The International Monetary Fund and World Bank have started to

worry about poverty but until now, they haven't linked debt to the

environment," Jose Sarney Filho said. "I must emphasize the need

to reformulate debt-conversion mechanisms to reach forms of

environmental activity including the protection of biodiversity,

reforestation, and ecotourism."

Sarney made his remarks at the opening of the 13th Forum of Latin

American and Caribbean Environmental Ministers, where ministers

from 16 nations are working on a plan of action to take with them

to the U.N.-sponsored 2002 World Summit for Sustainable

Development. The summit, to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa,

is intended to take stock of the world's progress since the 1992

Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro.

Sarney said that since 1992, carbon gas emissions in the United

States have risen by 22 percent, and promises from industrialized

countries to devote 0.7 percent of their gross national products

to sustainable development have largely been forgotten.

"The indifference of the great majority of industrialized

countries regarding the promises made for the sustainability of

the planet has left the world community incredulous and

apprehensive, and we warn of imminent, lamentable failure of the

global partnership conceived at Rio 92," Sarney said.

He suggested that Latin America and the Caribbean, which are home

to about two-thirds of the world's remaining tropical forests and

about one-third of all renewable water sources, should be able to

leverage these assets in exchange for economic benefits.

Sarney estimates that Brazil will need some US$50 billion over the

next 10 years to protect the environment and foster sustainable

development.

One plan being developed was to create carbon sinks:

Industrialized nations could pay countries like Brazil to reforest

areas big enough to absorb carbon emissions that exceeded limits

set under the Kyoto accords on global warming. The plan suffered a

major setback earlier this year when U.S. President George W. Bush

said his country would not sign the accords because they would

harm the American economy.

But Klaus Toepfer, a former German environment minister who now

directs the U.N. Environment Program, said he felt the United

States might be persuaded to rethink its position. "The U.S. is a

member of the U.N. convention on climate, so they are a partner in

the battle to fight climate change. I sincerely hope going forward

we will have the U.S. as a collaborator," Toepfer said. "We know

that the U.S. is responsible for a huge part of the emissions."

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