Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!mont!rich From: cdp!christic@labrea.Stanford.EDU Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive Subject: G-7 Summit Forest Alert Message-ID: <1991Jun7.212141.8307@pencil.cs.missouri.edu> Date: 7 Jun 91 01:53:27 GMT Sender: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel) Organization: UMC Math Dept. Lines: 119 Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu /* Written 11:09 pm Jun 5, 1991 by econet in cdp:en.alerts */ /* ---------- "G-7 Summit Forest Alert" ---------- */ Subject: G-7 Summit Forest Alert >From scdc1 Wed Jun 5 12:12 PDT 1991 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 June 1991