The following is an alert for the July G-7 Summit meeting in London.
The Sierra Club and 56 members of the U.S. House of Representatives have
called upon the U.S. State Department to make the following initiative a
priority for the meeting. We don't have the commitment as yet. However,
while Sec. of State James Baker was Treasury Secretary he directed our
representatives to the multilateral development banks not to support
projects that would lead to the destruction of tropical forests.
The State Department has recently announced that it will be going to
the G-7 meeting with a "Proposal on Forest Principles" which it would like
the other nations to agree to as the bases for a forest convention for
Brazil '92. The principles in their present draft are unacceptable for they
only look at ways to "manage" the forests and do not address the need for
conservation of primary forests. More information on that will be coming
soon.
We hope that your organization can help to make the following proposal
a reality at the summit meeting. We would like to hear from you about this
initiative.
# # #
G-7 LEADERS URGED TO SAVE THE TROPICAL FORESTS
BY PLEDGING TO "DO NO HARM"
G-7 countries must immediately halt all foreign aid destructive of
tropical forests if this wealth of biological diversity is to survive.
Western industrialized nations must accept part of the responsibility for
the accelerating destruction of the tropical forests through the funding of
misdirected or shortsighted development aid projects in the developing
world.
The Group of 7 Economic Summit meeting in July provides the perfect
opportunity for the seven largest industrialized nations to pledge to "do no
harm" to the world's remaining tropical forests.
We call upon the G-7 Economic Summit leaders to pledge at the July
meeting to "do no harm" by:
o Agreeing not to fund bilateral aid
projects that would lead to the
destruction of tropical forests; and,
o Agreeing not to vote for any multilateral
aid projects proposed by the World Bank,
or any of the regional development banks,
that would destroy the tropical forests.
Last year's communique from the Group of 7 heads of state expressed
strong concern over the rapid loss of the tropical forests. In response to
this concern the G-7 leaders committed their governments to negotiate a
"global forest convention." In addition, they recognized that the Tropical
Forest Action Plan, sponsored by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization,
the U.N. Development Programme and the World Bank, is accelerating the loss
of primary forests, rather than saving them, and called for its redesign.
Concerned citizens from all parts of the world applauded the G-7 for taking
the first steps in addressing this continuing tragedy.
Despite these well meaning words, the destruction continues unabated.
It is now generally accepted that a global forest convention will not be
ready for signing at the 1992 U.N. Conference on Environment and Development
next June in Brazil. Plans to negotiate a global forest convention and
reform TFAP are not enough. The G-7 countries must immediately pledge to
halt all foreign aid investments that would lead to the destruction of
tropical forests.
In fact, the U.S. Government is already committed to the policy of
"doing no harm" to the tropical forests. Through Congressional legislation
in 1986, and again in 1990, the U.S. Agency for International Development
was directed to not undertake any projects that would lead to the loss of
tropical forests. In 1988, through a directive by then Secretary of
Treasury James Baker III, the U.S. Executive Directors to the World Bank,
and the regional multilateral development banks, are prohibited from voting
for any funded project that would lead to the destruction of tropical
forests.
We urge the rest of the G-7 member nations to follow the lead of the
United States Government by agreeing in July to take no action that would
lead to the unnecessary loss of tropical forests through their bilateral and
multilateral aid programs.
For further information contact:
Sierra Club
International Program
408 C St. N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20002
Phone: 202-547-1141
Fax: 202-547-6009
ECONET: SCDC1 (Internet: scdc1@igc.org)
June 1991