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Imperilled Riches DEBT Driving commercial deforestation is the crushing debt of many developing tropical countries. The fastest and easiest way to service debt and interest payments is to exploit the natural resources for quick returns. Thus Ecuador is selling its oil, Indonesia its mineral wealth, the Solomon Islands its trees, Laos its hydroelectric potential, as the tropical world is sacrificed. Readily available without capital investment or skilled labor, often non-renewable, forest products like mineral wealth, timber, oil, and hydroelectric power are liquidated in an attempt to raise much needed cash. The origin of international debt varies from country to country, but many borrowed heavily during the 1970s in an attempt to offset the rising price of oil and to keep their economies growing. Other debts were initiated by their struggle for independence and civil wars that followed. Debt increased with the reign by corrupt, heavy-handed governments which often used loans to purchase weapons or to finance wasteful or ill-conceived projects that neither benefited majority of the population, the economy, nor the environment. High interest rates coupled with the global recession made it harder for developing countries to pay off debt. Much of the foreign aid coming into such countries from multilateral lending organizations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), finances projects that result in the destruction of the rainforests and thus further ensuring future impoverishment. These organizations fund such projects because the bank is most suited to large development projects and projects are chosen primarily based on those that yield the most immediate economic return. The debt of developing countries continues to grow. Tropical forest countries own roughly two-thirds of the developing world's debt. In sub-Sahara Africa for example, the total debt in 1980 was US$84 billion, while by early 1996 the debt had climbed past US$210 billion despite frantic development and a constant stream of refinancing. |
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A World Imperilled |
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Copyright Rhett Butler 1994-2005 |
