[stop-imf] Reason No. 6 to Come to DC for A16: IMF/World Bank structural adjustment programs devastate the environment

Wed, 12 Apr 2000 19:22:48 -0400 (EDT)

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This is one in a series of one pagers on "Reasons to Come to DC for April
16." A version formatted in MS Word is attached. Please spread these
widely, and feel free to lift from them for your own use.

For more on the demonstrations, go to www.a16.org.

Robert Weissman
Essential Information=09=09=09|   Internet:=09rob@essential.org

Essential Action
P.O. Box 19405 Washington, D.C.  20036
TELEPHONE: 202-387-8030  o  FAX: 202-234-5176  o  E-MAIL: ACTION@ESSENTIAL.=
ORG

Reason No. 6 to Come to DC for April 16:
Structural Adjustment Destroys the Environment

Structural adjustment contributes to environmental degradation through its
manic emphasis on promoting exports, including especially agricultural and
resource exports, as well as through its undermining of enforcement of
environmental regulations. Here is how Friends of the Earth describes the
problem in a recent report, "IMF: Selling the Environment Short."

"One major goal of structural adjustment programs (SAPs) and stabilization
programs is to generate foreign exchange through a positive trade balance. =
To
meet the IMF's ambitious targets for currency reserves and trade balance,
countries must quickly generate foreign exchange, often turning to their
natural resource base. Countries often over-exploit their resources through
unsustainable forestry, mining and agricultural practices that generate
pollution and environmental destruction, and ultimately threaten future
exchange earnings."

"[E]xports of natural resources have increased at astonishing rates in many
countries under IMF adjustment programs, with no consideration of the
environmental sustainability of this approach. Furthermore, the IMF's=20
policies often promote price-sensitive raw resource exports, rather than
finished products. Finished products would capture more added value, employ
more people in different enterprises, help diversify the economy and
disseminate more know-how."

"Structural adjustment and stabilization also aim to generate positive
government budget balances. In the effort to rapidly trim budget deficits,
governments are forced to make choices, and inevitably, the environment los=
es.
Decreased spending weakens government ability to enforce environmental laws
and diminishes efforts to promote conservation. In addition, governments ar=
e
told to increase private investment and to reduce the role of the state in
favor of private sector development. Budget priorities are often directed
toward business promotion, creating a further strain on cash-strapped
environmental enforcement agencies. ... Governments may also relax
environmental regulation to meet SAP [structural adjustment program]
objectives of increasing foreign investment, as occurred in the case of the=
 Philippines."

As one example of how IMF-mandated budget cuts can hurt the environment,
Friends of the Earth points to the Brazilian Amazon forest: "Because of IMF
budget restrictions, as of July 1999, funding for the enforcement of
environmental regulations and supervision programs was reduced by over 50
percent. ... The Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natu=
ral
Resources, responsible for implementing Brazil=92s environmental and
conservation protection programs, had expenditures that totaled only 16.28
percent of its budget."

The IMF says it defers consideration of the environmental effects of
structural adjustment to the World Bank, but as Friends of the Earth points
out, "The World Bank has failed to provide environmental guidance to the IM=
F,
and is even delinquent in assessing the environmental impacts of its own
structural adjustment loans," Friends of the Earth concludes. "A recent
internal World Bank study found that fewer than 20 percent of World Bank
adjustment loans included any environmental assessment."

FOR INFORMATION ON THE APRIL 16 PROTESTS IN DC, GO TO WWW.A16.ORG

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