Eco-bucks: going for the purse strings.Eco-bucks: Going for the purse strings purse strings or purse·strings pl.n. Financial support or resources, or control over them: the politicians who control federal purse strings; tightened the corporate purse strings. Environmental groups are gaining some clout in the international banking world. Under pressure from several environmental organizations, the United States last week abstained from a vote to recommend a controversial international loan to Botswana. Despite the U.S. abstention ABSTENTION, French law. This is the tacit renunciation by an heir of a succession Merl. Rep. h.t. , the loan was ultimately approved by the African Development Bank, of which the United States is a member. But it was the first time the United States has on environmental grounds failed to support a loan to an African country. The $7 million loan--earmarked for a slaughterhouse--was opposed on the grounds that it would encourage farmers to raise more cattle, thus worsening the country's severe overgrazing overgrazing see overstocking. problem. There are concerns that the loss of grasslands in Botswana may worsen ecological imbalances in the area. Meanwhile, the Inter-American Development Bank Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) international organization founded in 1959 by 20 governments in North and South America to finance economic and social development in the Western Hemisphere. has suspended a $40 million loan for an Amazon road-paving project pending an environmental review of the work to date. The move follows a warning by a U.S. Senate appropriations subcommittee--itself under pressure from environmental groups--that U.S. funds for the bank might be cut off unless environmental concerns are adequately addressed. At issue is Brazil's alleged noncompliance noncompliance failure of the owner to follow instructions, particularly in administering medication as prescribed; a cause of a less than expected response to treatment. noncompliance with conditions of the 1985 loan, which required that the country adhere to an Environmental Action Plan aimed at mitigating road-project-related deforestation deforestation Process of clearing forests. Rates of deforestation are particularly high in the tropics, where the poor quality of the soil has led to the practice of routine clear-cutting to make new soil available for agricultural use. , land speculation and Indian displacement. |
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