World Bank Project Triples Protected Amazon Forest Areas
5/1/98
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Title: World Bank Project Triples Protected Amazon Forest Areas
Source: USIA
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 5/1/98
Byline: Hernan Martinez
WASHINGTON -- The Brazilian government has announced its commitment with the
World Bank and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to establish 25 million hectares
of protected forest in the Amazon basin by the year 2000, completing the
largest forest conservation proposal ever in the region.
"Brazil and the World Bank have signed an agreement to make available part of
the necessary resources to create new protected areas in the Amazon region and
in the Atlantic forest," President Fernando Cardoso of Brazil said, speaking in
taped remarks at an April 29 news briefing at the National Press Club. "The
partnership between the World Bank and the WWF will play an important role in
enabling countries that are committed to the preservation of their bio-
diversity to implement their projects," he said.
This commitment is the first outcome of the "World Bank/WWF Alliance for Forest
Conservation and Sustainable Use," which was created in June 1997 in response
to the high rate of forest loss around the world and the resulting
disappearance of biodiversity and forest-based goods and services. Nearly two-
thirds of the Earth's original forest cover has already been lost, according to
information distributed to reporters.
"The decision by Brazil's President Cardoso is truly a remarkable one, both for
its size and for its content," said World Bank President James Wolfensohn.
"This decision will help preserve the abundant biodiversity in this remarkable
tropical region. It is a true gift to the Brazilian people and, indeed, to the
world," he said.
In the past three months, forest fires have raged in the Brazilian Amazon,
which is home to one-tenth of the world's plant and animal species and contains
some of the planet's most important tropical habitats.
"President Cardoso's decision represents the first tangible, major
accomplishment for the World Bank/WWF alliance and shows what can be achieved
when two effective, influential organizations combine their expertise with a
farsighted government in an effort to save the world's largest forests," said
Claude Martin, Director General of WWF-International.