----- forwarded message ----- Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 20:57:06 +0200 From: secr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: House votes to trade debt for tropical forests ----- forwarded message ----- Subject: [gaia-l] House votes to trade debt for tropical forests Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 16:32:21 -0300 From: Mark Graffis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wednesday, July 11, 2001 By Associated Press WASHINGTON -- The House voted Tuesday to extend a "debt-for-nature" law that lets developing countries avoid some obligations to the United States by protecting rain forests. Supporters easily passed the bill on a voice vote after citing the loss of 30 million acres of tropical forests each year in Third World countries that tap their natural resources to pay off crushing foreign debt. The bill to reauthorize the 1998 Tropical Forest Conservation Act goes next to the Senate. It envisions providing up to $225 million over three years. Last year, just more than half of the $13 million allotted under the program was spent: $6 million went to Bangladesh and $1 million went to administrative costs. The bill's supporters in both parties emphasized that the forests absorb heat-trapping carbon-dioxide pollution to help curb global warming, provide habitat for countless rare and exotic species, and protect an important breeding ground for about 70 percent of all new cancer drugs. "The United States has a significant national interest in protecting these forests around the world," said Rep. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, chief sponsor of the bill that created the program in 1998. Bush promised during last year's campaign to ask Congress for at least $100 million a year for the Tropical Forest Conservation Act. But Bush's initial budget proposal in office was only for $13 million -- the same as last year under President Clinton. "There are certain programs that no matter how much money you give them, they can't spend it all, and this is one of them," Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said in April. Later that month, however, while Bush was at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, the White House said Bush supported spending at least $30 million this year for the program. "We are committed to protecting the hemisphere's natural resources," Bush said (!!!). "That's why I am committed to using the Tropical Forest Conservation Act to help countries redirect debt payment toward local projects that will protect biodiversity and tropical forests." Copyright 2001, Associated Press
