unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (10/25/89)
Forwarded-From : Greenlink October 20, 2989
RAINFOREST INDIANS MEET WITH U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS
By RUTH SINAI
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A coalition of Amazon Indians from five Latin
American countries met Thursday with major U.S. environmental groups to
demand inclusion in consideration of the conservation of the world's
largest rainforest and the safeguarding of their native lands and
rights.
"The time has come for the indigenous people of the Amazon, the people
who have always lived there, to take a place at the table as well,"
said Evaristo Nugkuag, president of the coalition known by its Spanish
acronym COICA.
Representatives of the countries -- Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia
and Brazil -- have also met this week with officials of the World Bank
and the Inter-American Development Bank to demand that development
programs undertaken by these institutions be coordinated with the
native inhabitants.
Wilfrido Aragon Aranda of Ecuador said indigenous people had been
expelled from their lands to make way for hydroelectric projects,
because Latin American governments do not respect Indian rights. "We
told them that we are now organized and we want them to deal directly
with us, and also to press our governments to comply with protection
laws of our rights," he said.
Noted U.S. environmentalists, including Thomas Lovejoy of the
Smithsonian Institution, promised to respond to the Indians' concerns
and to lobby for their rights. "We're deeply grateful for this
initiative," Lovejoy said at a news conference.
Barbara Bramble of the National Wildlife Fund said her organization
would lobby the World Bank and other institutions to make sure they
deal directly with the Indians on development projects.
The World Bank has begun focusing attention this year on conservation
projects, after being accused of environmental destruction through
development projects such as road and dam construction in the Third
World.
World attention has been increasingly turned to the destruction of the
2 million square-mile Amazon forest, mainly through burning, for
farming, ranching, highway building and mining. The United Nations and
other bodies have proposed so-called "debt for nature swaps," in which
they would use some of South America's $112 billion debt to invest in
Amazon protection programs.
But Nugkuag rejected the idea, saying the Indians of the Amazon have
never received money from their governments and had not contributed to
the debt problem. "But still, they're talking about giving away our
lands to pay their debts," he said.
Instead, he suggested, environmentalists should swap debt for projects
protecting indigenous lands and peoples, which would be the best
guarantee of the forest's conservation, as well.
"The focus of concern of the environmental community has been the
preservation of the tropical forests and its plants and animal
inhabitants," said a statement issued by the group. "You have shown
little interest in its human inhabitants."
A second meeting to discuss specific ways of advancing the goals
adopted at Thursday's meeting will be held next year in Peru,
organizers said.
####
* Origin: TouchStone HST: A FINE Standard (509)292-8178 (1:346/1.0)
---
Patt Haring | United Nations | Screen Gems in
patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu | Information | misc.headlines.unitex
patth@ccnysci.BITNET | Transfer Exchange |
-=- Every child smiles in the same language. -=-