Green Issues

A weekly column on current issues by John A Burton of the World Land Trust. The views expressed are personal, and do not necessarily reflect those of the WLT. Feedback and comments are welcomed.

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IMF and Africa

Thursday, July 05, 2007

The WLT is often asked why we don't have any projects in Africa. And the simple answer is that we have yet to identify an NGO we feel could carry out a land acquisition, and manage it sustainably into the future. But we are looking, have identified some potential partners, and will probably announce a project soon.

Millions of conservation dollars, pounds and Euros have been spent in Africa, and the conditions for wildlife have continued to deteriorate. Most of this funding has been completely wasted, despite the fact that hundreds, if not thousands of researchers from the developed world have got their masters' degrees and PhDs researching the demise of the wildlife. The IMF recently pointed out that misapplied aid can be disastrous. The G8 group of nations have called for an increase of £13 billion of aid to Africa, but the IMF has pointed out this could have an adverse effect if it is not spent thoughtfully. Aid agencies continue to raise millions in Britain to 'wipe out poverty' in Africa, without having a clue what the environmental impacts are. If you don't believe me, ask any of the big agencies for copies of their EIAs (Environmental Impact Assessments) for a range of projects. Or try asking them what their policies on human population are. This is a fine example:

Dear Mr Burton,

Thank you for your e-mail. Christian Aid does not have a specific policy on population. Our mission is to help people in developing countries improve their lives. We do this by exposing and tackling the root cause of poverty and injustice worldwide. We support and fund projects in developing countries that enable communities build sustainable economies.

Thank you for your interest in the work of Christian Aid.

But hang on, surely the root cause of poverty is a rapidly expanding, unchecked human population, dependent on limited resources?

Comments on a post card or by email please.......
Labels: Human Population Crisis, International Aid

Posted by John Thursday, July 05, 2007

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2 Comments:

totaly agree that no one could spend even a million efficiently let alone 13 billion. thinking of all the misspent money just renovating one's own home! and those are honest mistakes with sometimes greedy suppliers.

btw its july 1 not 5th.

heather

By Anonymous, at 01 July, 2007 20:06

People do not think, to some extent they have no idea of the facts is involved, so lets try using our imagination. Look at the following figures (I hope they are correct) and then visualised those parched landscapes on the wildlife programmes. The population of Kenya in 1964 was seven million; now it is 35 million and rising.
taken from a letter on http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/07/04/nosplit/dt0401.xml
We in the UK expand our population but have productive farms and take our harvests from hectares on other countries. Which is as they (should) say unsustainable; but very comfortable.

By Anonymous, at 04 July, 2007 20:27

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