WB won't fund projects harmful to ecology
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THE HINDU ONLINE : October 15, 1996
http://www.webpage.com/hindu/daily/961015/02/02150003.htm
`WB won't fund projects harmful to ecology'
Date: 15-10-1996 :: Pg: 15 :: Col: a
From Our Special Correspondent
MUMBAI, Oct. 14.
Non-Governmental Organisations, divided over the issues listed for discussed
with the World Bank chief, Mr. James Wolfensohn, here on Sunday, demonstrated
at the Azad Kranti Maidan and demanded that the World Bank ``quit India''. They
were irked at the issues listed by the convener of the meeting, Mr. Kisan
Mehta.
An opponent of the Narmada dam and environmentalist, Mr. Bittu Sehgal, said
``if I am opposed to drugs I do not have to meet the drugs cartel. I can
boycott it. I am boycotting the meeting with the Bank chief''. There were
serious objections to a proposal that the Bank directly ``sponsor or promote
citizens'' projects without Government's intervention on grants or soft loan
basis.'' That indeed was the bone of contention, though some of them have made
their stand clear: they were objecting to the World Bank's presence in India as
a lender and lure the NGOs by favouring some through consultancies and try to
divide them. All efforts of the Bank at ``people's participation,'' was
``though in the positive direction,'' was cosmetic. Narmada Bacho Andolan and
its allies in the National Alliance of People's Movement accused the Bank of
meeting only with consultants or those who aspire to be consultants to give the
``world the impression that it was actually consulting the people.''
Addressing some of the NGOs, who participated at a closed door meeting at the
Mani Bhavan, the World Bank chief said he was not suggesting that the Bank had
not funded projects which were environmentally degrading but asserted that when
they were conceived and approved, they were at a phase when environmental
standards were not very high. They were to be, he implied, benchmarked to that
moment in time. The Bank has been shown lists where it went wrong and where it
did not and ``it was ready to learn''.
Mr. Wolfensohn told those who attended the session with Ms. Usha Mehta,
Gandhian present, that ``I am sure that we are not doing everything right'' but
that the World Bank was ``ready to change'' its ways. By March 31, the NGOs
would convey to him a written note on the issues taken up and he ``would come
back to you on that in a short time.'' He would like to ensure that the
projects it was financing would not degrade the environment. The Bank was aware
that because of its projects, there ``was the critical social impact,'' on the
people.
The rewards hitherto had been in approving projects for funding whereas the
emphasis would change to implementation. The lender was more ``geared to
approve,'' not implement and he was seeking a situation where implementation,
not mere approval, would be the reward. He wants to be in a position to come
back and ``tell you that we have done our job; you need to do yours.'' On the
Narmada, he was uncertain if the Bank's departure from the scene was good or
not, but he noticed that ``the Government is not anxious to be influenced by
us. Some say we only made it worse.''
THE HINDU ONLINE : October 15, 1996
http://www.webpage.com/hindu/daily/961015/03/03150001.htm
Tiger conservation to be taken up at Congress
Date: 15-10-1996 :: Pg: 11 :: Col: a
From Kalpana Sharma
MONTREAL, Oct. 14.
Are tigers in India disappearing at the rate of one a day? Can the world's
tropical rain forests be saved without preventing poor countries from
exploiting their natural resources? Is it possible to reconcile the interests
of people, business and conservation of wild species? These are some of the
many issues being deliberated here as the World Conservation Congress, the
largest gathering of environmentalists since the 1992 UN Conference on
Environment and Development (UNCED) gets under way in the Canadian city of
Montreal.
Organised by the World Conservation Union _ also known as the International
Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) _ the conference is bringing
together a mix of government representatives, international NGOs and national
NGOs. Although such a meeting of IUCN members is held every three years, this
is the first time that a part of it has been thrown open to the public. It will
be officially opened later today by the Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. Jean
Chretien.
Although the IUCN has been attempting to alter its profile in the last three
years, partly as a result of pressure from its membership in the south, and is
beginning to address issues such as trade and environment, it is best known for
its work in conservation through the large networks of professionals who serve
in their voluntary capacity in two of its six commissions, the Species Survival
Commission (SSC) and the Commission on National Parks and Protected Areas
(CNPPA).
Mr. Peter F. R. Jackson, Chairman of the Cat Specialist Group of the SSC told
The Hindu this morning that although the controversy surrounding the recent
report by Mr. Michael Day from Britain suggesting that one tiger a day was
being killed in India was sensational, it may not be far off the
mark.
Mr. Jackson has been involved in tiger conservation for many decades and
recalls his visits to India in the early 1970s when, he says, he had the full
support of the Indian Government. ``I had more or less a hot line to Indira
Gandhi'', he said. ``If I sent a message, officials would hear the very next
day.''
Since then, Mr. Jackson feels there has been a noticeable decline in interest,
partly due to a much more complex political situation. But he is concerned
about the lack of political will in the Indian government on issues like tiger
conservation and holds this as partly responsible for the acceleration in tiger
poaching. Mr. Jackson estimates that the actual number of tigers killed _ that
is those that can be physically verified _ probably represents only one-third
of the actual number killed.
Explaining the reason for the increase in tiger poaching, Mr. Jackson holds
that apart from the decline in political will in India to prevent this, there
has also been a dramatic increase in the demand for tiger products primarily
from China and from Chinese communities worldwide. Although tiger products are
usually associated with aphrodisiacs, in fact the major use of tiger bones is
in traditional Chinese medicine to cure rheumatism. The Chinese have no
interest in tiger skins. These sell mostly in the Arab countries.
The increase in demand for tiger products was subsequent to the depletion in
the large stocks of tiger bones in China following the killing of an estimated
three to four thousand South China tigers in the early Fifties as part of a
clean-up campaign ordered by the government. Tigers were viewed as pests and
thus killed. Mr. Jackson estimates that today there are no more than a handful
of the South China tiger species left.
Mr. Jackson suggests that once that stock had depleted, the market for more
products grew. The main area of attack was India, particularly the tigers found
outside the tiger sanctuaries. According to the 1993 tiger census, of the total
of 3750 tigers in India, 1300 were in the 23 tiger reserves. That meant almost
2500 tigers existed outside these reserves. Madhya Pradesh, where a large
population of such tigers exist, has been one of the main areas of tiger
poaching. Around Pench and Kanha, he says, the tiger has almost disappeared
from the non-protected areas.
Wildlife conservation on the one hand and sustainable use of wildlife on the
other, as well as different models for the management of protected areas, are
some of the questions that will be debated here over the next days.
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