TROPICAL RAINFORESTS: Imperiled Riches—Threatened Rainforests
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Slash-and-burn agriculture in the Amazon rain forest of Peru . (Photo by R. Butler)

DEBT

In the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, debt was driving commercial deforestation in some developing tropical countries. Strapped for cash, these countries turned toward their natural resources as the fastest and easiest way to service debt and interest payments. Readily available without capital investment or skilled labor, often non-renewable, forest products like mineral wealth, timber, oil, and hydroelectric power were liquidated in an effort to raise much-needed funds.

While efforts in the last couple of years have sought to reduce or eliminate debts of the world's poorest countries (World Bank / IMF), debt payments still are an important factor in the need for governments to pursue and exploit natural resources in a non-reponsible manner.

Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs)
CountryExternal debt
(millions)
Date of
Information
Benin$1.600 2000
Bolivia$5.439 June 2004 est.
Burkina Faso$1.300 2000
Burundi$1.133 2002
Cameroon$8.460 2004 est.
Chad$1.100 2000 est.
Congo, Dem Rep of the$11.600 2000 est.
Congo$5.000 2000 est.
Cote d'Ivoire$11.810 2004 est.
Ethiopia$2.900 2001 est.
Gambia, The$0.476 2001 est.
Ghana$7.396 2004 est.
Guinea$3.250 2001 est.
Guinea-Bissau$0.942 2000 est.
Guyana$1.200 2002
Honduras$5.365 Sept 2004 est.
Kenya$6.792 2004 est.
Madagascar$4.600 2002
Malawi$3.129 2004 est.
Mali$3.300 2000
Mauritania$2.500 2000
Mozambique$0.966 2002 est.
Nicaragua$4.573 2004 est.
Niger$1.600 1999 est.
Rwanda$1.300 2000 est.
Sao Tome and Principe$0.318 2002
Senegal$3.476 2004 est.
Sierra Leone$1.500 2002 est.
Tanzania$7.321 2004 est.
Uganda$3.865 2004 est.
Yemen$5.400 2004 est.
Zambia$5.353 2004 est.
source: CIA World Factbook
The origin of international debt varies from country to country, but many borrowed heavily during the 1970s in an attempt to offset the rising price of oil and to keep their economies growing. Other debts were initiated by struggles for independence and civil wars that followed. Debt increased with the reign by corrupt, heavy-handed governments, which often used loans to purchase weapons or to finance wasteful or ill-conceived projects that neither benefited the majority of the population, the economy, nor the environment. High interest rates coupled with the global recession made it harder for developing countries to pay off debt.

Historically, much of the foreign aid flowing into such countries from multilateral lending organizations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) financed projects that result in the destruction of the rainforests and thus further ensured future impoverishment and dependence on aid. These organizations funded such projects because they were most suited to large development projects and projects were chosen primarily based on those that yield the most immediate economic return, not necessarily the best long-term growth prospects.

The debt of developing countries continues to grow. Tropical forest countries own roughly two-thirds of the developing world's debt. In sub-Sahara Africa, for example, the total debt in 1980 was US$84 billion, while by early 2001 the debt had climbed past US$275 billion despite frantic development and a constant stream of refinancing.


Review questions:
  • How does international debt impact deforestation in the tropics?

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Continued: Population & Poverty


This article was written by Rhett A. Butler [bibliographic citation for this page] and was last updated on the most recent date listed in the column on the right side.




Other pages in this section:
A World Imperilled
Threats from Humankind
Economic Restructuring
Logging
Fires
Commercial Agriculture
Hydro, Pollution, Hunting
Debt
Consumption, Conclusion
- - - - -
References
References
References
References
References
Natural forces
Subsistence Activities
Oil Extraction
Mining
War
Cattle Pasture
Fuelwood, Roads, Climate
Population & Poverty

- - - - -
Kids version of this section
- Why are rainforests disappearing?
- Logging
- Agriculture
- Cattle
- Roads
- Poverty




Recent news

Developer uses cover of national holiday to clear rainforest near Colon, Panama
(11/06/2009) On Tuesday, November 3rd, while Panamanians celebrated Independence Day Holidays, heavy machinery unexpectedly entered and began cutting down tropical forest and mangroves near Galeta outside of Colon, Panama, report local sources. mongabay.com confirmed that the latest clearing has been carried out "almost in secret during national holidays so there would be no reaction from the public or the media." The clearing, conducted by a transportation cooperative called Serafin Niño, from Colon, is occurring in the buffer zone of the Galeta Protected Landscape and near Galeta Point Marine Laboratory, a facility of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. The land will likely be used to store transportation equipment that moves cargo to and from the ports of Colon and the Free Zone.


Important safeguards to protect rainforests lacking in REDD negotiating text
(11/06/2009) Important safeguards to protect natural forests are still lacking in negotiating text on REDD, a proposed mechanism for mitigating climate change by paying developing countries to keep trees standing, reports an alliance of activist groups.


World's first video of the elusive and endangered bay cat
(11/05/2009) Rare, elusive, and endangered by habitat loss, the bay cat is one of the world's least studied wild cats. Several specimens of the cat were collected in the 19th and 20th Century, but a living cat wasn't even photographed until 1998. Now, researchers in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, have managed to capture the first film of the bay cat (Catopuma badia). Lasting seven seconds, the video shows the distinctly reddish-brown cat in its habitat.


Governments, public failing to save world's species
(11/04/2009) According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) 2008 report, released yesterday, 36 percent of the total species evaluated by the organization are threatened with extinction. If one adds the species classified as Near Threatened, the percentage jumps to 44 percent—nearly half.


House resolution condemns plunder of natural resources in Madagascar
(11/04/2009) A House of Representatives resolution introduced by Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) condemns the illegal plundering of natural resources in Madagascar, reports the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).



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