ENVIRONMENT-SRI LANKA: Scepticism Greets U.S. Debt Swap Offer

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Jul 2 2001 (IPS) - Green groups are stridently opposing a U.S. proposal to swap debt with a programme to conserve Sri Lanka’s rainforest, accusing the west of trying to control and then spirit away the country’s resources.

“You touch a rainforest and you destroy it,” Nihal Fernando, a long-time wildlife photographer and conservationist complained as government politicians were at pains to explain that no deal has been signed with U.S. authorities despite the tempting offer to write off debts.

At issue is a U.S. government offer, revealed in June, to swap debt owed by Sri Lanka in return for an ongoing global programme which supports the country by diverting debt cash to tropical rainforest conservation.

Under the offer, Sri Lanka would divert the money it owes the United States to rainforest protection in a joint U.S.-Sri Lanka project.

Sri Lanka’s debt was around one trillion rupees (11 billion U.S. dollars) as of March, the bulk of it owed to the United States. No estimates were given about the amount that may be involved in the debt swap scheme.

U.S. embassy officials in Colombo have denied any hidden motives in the proposal, but green groups are not buying the explanation.

Fernando expressed concern about the dangers the proposed debt swap poses to the rich biodiversity of Sinharaja, Sri Lanka’s main rainforest in the southern region, if all kinds of “dubious” organisations began implementing projects there.

Environment Minister Mahinda Wijesekera concedes that the government has received a debt swap offer from the U.S. government, but says the ministry has no intention of selling or leasing out the country’s forests to any other country or institution.

“There is no such move,” he told a meeting of forest officers last week. At the same time, he said: “The decision is a difficult one for Sri Lanka given the country’s staggering debt and the opportunity to redeem these liabilities.”

Wijesekera said that on one hand, there is an opportunity to overcome the debt situation to some extent and even bring in much needed funds for conservation activities.

“But on the other hand, we cannot compromise our rich resources without giving due consideration to the possible repercussions these agreements have,” he noted.

For once, environmentalists agree with the minister’s view. “To me there are good points and bad points in the proposal,” says Hemantha Withanage, a respected environmental scientist.

Withanage says the proposal can generate much-needed financial resources to protect rainforests. But he is also worried that outside agencies will control the forests and steal valuable data on plants, especially medicinal plants that are much sought after by western drug firms.

“Some of the contents of the proposal to the government from the United States has information extracted from a private research study undertaken by a multinational drugs firm in the Sinharaja forest some months ago on medicinal plants,” said Withanage.

“This shows the connection and this is where I have my doubts. In the long run it would not be beneficial to the country,” he added.

The US offer was revealed in parliament in June, when opposition parliamentarian Bimal Ratnayake from the Marxist People’s Liberation Front (JVP) said he had information that the environment ministry has received a letter from the U.S. government recommending the debt swap under a 1998 US Tropical Forest and Conservation Act.

This law allows nations to convert outstanding debt to funding for local forest programmes, explained U.S. ambassador Ashley Willis, who pooh-poohed any hidden agenda by Washington in it.

Willis said the law is beneficial to the host country in many ways, like paying in local currency and not draining foreign reserves, making available scarce funds and employing local people.

The host country can also pull out of the programme at any time and the remaining debt would be transferred back as outstanding debt, he said.

According to other officials, under this programme part of Sri Lanka’s natural reserve would come under a management board consisting of the U.S. ambassador and representatives from the government and NGOs.

This is one of the issues that worries local environmentalists. Suranjan Kodituwakku, chief organiser of Sri Lanka’s Green Movement, says there are many international NGOs that are toeing the U.S. line in environmental issues. This means they may be of little help since there is no guarantee that they would take into consideration the national interest.

Kodituwakku said it is also strange that the United States has taken a sudden interest in forests like the Sinharaja when the Bush administration earlier this year reneged on the Kyoto protocol on climate change and refuses to limit emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, offering instead to promote forest conservation.

JVP Ratnayake sees a hidden motive in the U.S. debt offer: “They may not cut down the trees. If fact they (U.S. or NGOs) might grow some. But what these guys are eyeing are the gene technology that can be derived from the trees.”

He said foreign companies are certain to carry out experiments on local resources and be able to take out the knowledge that is obtained from such research.

EFL’s Withanage echoes the same concerns and cites the number of cases in recent times where Sri Lanka’s medicinal plants have been exported surreptitiously by agents working for foreign pharmaceutical companies.

Sri Lanka has one of the richest biodiversities in the world, with varied animal life and jungles and forests filled with medicinal and herbal plants much sought after by western transnational firms.

Some of the country’s endemic plants have been patented by U.S. and Japanese companies as medicinal products.

Bangladesh is the only country in Asia that has opted for the debt swap programme and environmentalists there are not complaining, argues Willis, whose office quickly responded to the criticism when a local newspaper first raised questions about the debt scheme.

Withanage sees the U.S. debt swap as redemption for being the biggest offender of carbon dioxide emissions. “The US wants to tell the world that it cares for other forests now that it has destroyed forests on home turf.”