World Bank Loans Brazil $1.2B For Environment - Not What You Think It Is

[hatrack]

Much of the loan will be used to hire more inspectors to speed up the process for licensing dams, hydropower and thermal power plants and oil rigs. The World Bank - leading the planet into the 1960s!!

BRASILIA, Brazil — "The World Bank announced Tuesday it will lend $1.2 billion to Brazil over the next four years to help protect the environment. Vinod Thomas, the World Bank's director for Brazil, said it was the bank's biggest single loan dedicated to protecting the environment of a single country.

EDIT

Brazil's environment minister, Marina Silva, said the money would be used to finance 10 projects, ranging from protecting the Amazon rainforest to employing environmental analysts. "For us, this is highly relevant," Silva said, adding that the loan should serve to shield environmental projects from any eventual budget cuts."

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Silva said much of the money will be used to hire more environmental analysts to speed the process of licensing projects ranging from offshore oil rigs to thermo- and hydro-electric plants. Many investors have long complained of long delays in obtaining such licenses from Ibama, the federal environmental protection agency.

EDIT

The analysts will also be essential in protecting the wilderness along the BR-163 highway that the government hopes to pave into the heart of the Amazon rainforest. Grain farmers in the southern Amazon have long called for paving the road, which leads to a major river port in Santarem. But environmentalists argue that paving the road will open the heart of the rainforest up to unprecedented destruction. The government says safeguards can be implemented that will allow the road to be paved without the destruction that has accompanied previous road projects in the Amazon."

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http://www.enn.com/news/2004-08-25/s_26695.asp

Yes, with enough experts on hand, this time will be different.

[phantom power]

1. "speed up the process of licensing projects"

I think that tells us all we need to know about the "analysts" they intend to hire. If they were *actual* analysts, then you couldn't possibly assume that they'd approve any licenses, much less do it faster.

Let's call it like it is: "the money will be used to hire more rubber-stamps to speed the process of licensing projects"

[blindpig]

2. the new regime in Brasilia has been very disappointing

it's been nothing but bad news from Amazonia. I had the greatest hopes for President de Silva, but if he intends to better the Brasilian masses by continuing the rape of Amazonia instead of a little income redistribution then he is no friend of mine.