G7 Agrees Funding for Amazon Conservation Plan
11/2/97
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Headline: G7 Agrees Funding for Amazon Conservation Plan
Source: Reuters
Date: 11/2/97
Author: Michael Christie
Copyright: Reuters Limited 1997
BRASILIA (Reuters) - The Group of Seven industrialized nations ended a
meeting in the Amazonian capital Manaus, agreeing to finance a transition
phase of a sustainable development program for the rain forest, officials
said on Friday.
A spokeswoman for Brazil's Environment Ministry said Amazon Coordination
Secretary Jose Seixas Lourenco had described the three-day meeting, ending
on Thursday, as "extremely positive".
"We think the meeting was very positive, very animating," the spokeswoman
said, adding that G7 members Germany, the United States and France had
agreed to donate $47 million to the next stage of the so-called G7 Pilot
Program.
That transition phase will link the six-year-old pilot plan that has
funded more than 100 varied sustainable development projects in the Amazon, and
a
Phase Two program that is still to be agreed on.
Amid global concern about deforestation in the world's largest remaining
tropical rain forest, the G7 agreed at the start of the decade to finance
the preservation of the Amazon and the smaller Atlantic Forest along
Brazil's coastline. The pilot program has spent about $181.3 million of a
total of $250 million pledged to fund work like demarcation of Indian
reserves and protecting artesanal fishing communities from large-scale
competitors.
G7 members Germany, Britain, France, Canada, the United States, Japan and
Italy agreed in Manaus that Phase Two should begin after the year 2000.
That was the most concrete decision to emerge from the meeting.
"We certainly didn't accomplish everything we wanted to," the Environment
Ministry spokeswoman said.
The transition funding of $47 million is acknowledged to be inadequate.
But Brazilian officials said they were certain the other G7 members, with the
exception of Canada which has cited financial problems, would come up with
funding pledges at a next meeting scheduled to take place in Paris in June
next year.
In addition to the transition finance, the European Union said in Manaus
it would contribute $1 million in credit for micro-businesses in the region
while the United States agreed to $20 million in bilateral funding for
forest fire research.
Germany has always financed the bulk of the Pilot Program, contributing 35
percent of the total and even more as the principal economic power of the
European Union.
It has also come up with the largest chunk for the transition phase -- $35
million.
The Environment Ministry spokeswoman said a proposal to establish
development and conservation corridors in the sprawling Amazon river
basin, with intermediary zones in between, was discussed in Manaus but not in
great detail.
Environmentalists 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.
Ideally, Phase Two should seek to minimize the impact of these works by
ensuring development is restricted to the areas near the roads and
industrial riverways while the rest of the jungle is protected.