Ever since the Industrial Revolution the negative impact of human activity upon the environment has been very much in evidence. The latter part of the twentieth century witnessed an acceleration in the process of environmental destruction. In the southern hemisphere this process was further exacerbated by the Debt Crisis.

In the 1970s when money from oil revenues was easily available to developing countries, numerous ecologically disastrous projects were initiated. By the 1980s, when the debt crisis started, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) stepped in with further loans in return for the adoption of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs). The intention of SAPs is to promote export-led economic growth, which will enable the repayment of the loans. Exports earn foreign or hard currency (for example,US$), and external debt must be paid in hard currency. Exports from developing countries are usually primary goods such as oil or minerals as well as cash crops such as bananas, coffee and cocoa. The production of these goods puts considerable pressure on natural resources and all too often it is the local people who bear the cost. The damage inflicted upon their natural habitat results in increased impoverishment and displacement.

Large-scale mechanised and highly intensive farming practices are promoted to the detriment of the natural ecosystem. Under SAPs, small farmers lose their subsidies and support systems such as access to credit and advice. In the developing world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of small farmers are women and they have been the main producers of food crops. Many small farmers have found themselves unable to survive in a highly competitive environment where the main emphasis is on high yields in cash crops. The most fertile land is often allocated to cash crops and most of the agricultural research is focused on cash crop production. The implications for food security are very serious. The environment is put under further pressure as the small farmers who have been forced off their land burn large areas of forest to grow food for themselves and their families, this land is not ideal for growing food, but farmers often have no other options.

Hydro-electric projects and the construction of large dams have provided much needed energy for export-orientated industrial development. However, such development has frequently displaced and indeed destroyed native communities. Many people are forced to migrate to the already over-populated and heavily polluted cities. The search for work is often futile: SAPs lead to a reduction in government spending and the privitisation of state industries and one result of this is an increase in the level of unemployment.

In the last decade, the World Bank lent to projects that damaged the environment and put lives at risk. For example, communities in Bolivia have been exposed to the risk of explosions from Natural Gas pipelines financed by World Bank loans. Vast amounts of rainforest in Brazil have been cleared to make way for roads and railways to facilitate the mining industry. Although the World Bank has begun to include environmental considerations into its lending policies, this does not generally apply to SAPs lending.

With its emphasis on export performance and balancing the budget the IMF tends to neglect environmental considerations. Under IMF direction Cote d'Ivoire devalued its currency and created incentives to increase export-based agriculture. Since then, cocoa production rose by 44 per cent and the forest cover decreased by 33 per cent.

In Asia the farming of prawn and shrimp has been a traditional practice for hundreds of years. These traditional systems require few inputs and rely mainly on natural water supplies and tidal flow. Many indebted Asian governments, under pressure from the World Bank and IMF, have promoted intensive prawn and shrimp aquaculture. This practice has now almost entirely replaced traditional methods. Intensive farming requires a constant supply of saline water together with fish meal, lime, antibiotics and various chemicals.

In Nicaragua an IMF loan in 1994 focused on increased exports from fishing, forestry and agriculture. This loan added to an already heavy pattern of deforestation. When Hurricane Mitch struck Nicaragua, its effects were exacerbated by widespread deforestation. Much of the country had become susceptible to very high levels of erosion.

Today over six billion people share the earth's resources. It is now widely understood that any exploitation of these resources has implications for everyone. For most of the poorest countries in the world vulnerability to 'natural' disasters is worsened by the drastic measures demanded by structural adjustment. The loss of trees for example takes away a natural barrier to the forces of wind and rain. Developing countries have borne the brunt of the increasing number of natural disasters that have occurred over the past ten years. Between 1990-1998, 94 per cent of the world's disasters occurred in developing countries. (World Development Report, World Bank, 2000).

This situation is further exacerbated by the practices of those in the North. Industries in the North produce waste emissions faster than nature can absorb them and the earth's natural ability to regenerate itself may now have been eroded beyond the point of repair. Individual consumption patterns and lifestyles in the North, are also contributing to this degradation. Carbon (CO2) has increased in the earth's atmosphere by 33 per cent. Most of the increase has occurred in recent decades. This increase in carbon levels has been accompanied by rising global temperatures. Weather-related catastrophes occurring in tandem with a rise in global surface temperatures, tripled between the 1960s and the 1990s with an estimated loss of 41,000 lives and 300 million people displaced. In 1998 El Nino left its scars in droughts or floods right across Asia, Africa and South America. In the same year Hurricane Mitch struck Central America killing 20,000 and displacing three million. The damage to Honduras is reckoned to be in the region of $3.8 billion or 70 per cent of the national budget.

In 1992 the Rio Earth Summit recognised that industrialised countries need to reduce their carbon emissions by 60-80 per cent. In 1997, the Kyoto Proctocol set preliminary targets for reducing carbon emissions at 5 per cent of 1990 levels by 2008-2012. Some western countries are resisting or ignoring even this minimal reduction. The US currently uses twelve times the allowable amount while Tanzania uses 22 times less than its quota. In Ireland too, we are way beyond our limits. An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report published in August 2000, found that in 1998, state emissions here, including greenhouse gases, were already higher than limits agreed for the year 2010 under the Kyoto agreement. Since 1990, CO2 emissions in Ireland have increased by nearly 30 per cent. Ireland also emits the highest levels of ammonia, methane and other nitrous oxides per head of population than any other EU country. (Emissions of Atmospheric Pollutants in Ireland, 1990-1998, EPA, August 2000).

Carbon emissions are just one example of how the North is in reality severely indebted to the people and countries of the South.

"Rich countries pursue highly indebted countries to service their foreign financial debt, at great cost to the millions who subsequently go without vital health and education services. But industrialised countries are themselves responsible for a much larger debt to the global community. Their reckless use of fossil fuels has helped create the spectre of climate change ..it is poor people in poor countries who suffer first and worst from both extreme weather conditions connected to climate change, and from the struggle to service unpayable foreign debts" (Who owes Who?, Christian Aid )

Contributors:

Bet Aalan, Christian Aid
Niamh Gaynor, Jesuits for Debt Relief and Development

Resources:

After the Prawn Rush. The Human and Environmental Cost of Commercial Prawn Farming. Kevan Bundell & Eileen Manbin. Christian Aid, 1996

In Debt to Disaster. What happened to Honduras after Hurricane Mitch. Christian Aid, 1999

Mortagaging the Earth, The World Bank, Environmental Impoverishment and the Crisis of Development. Bruce Rich, 1994, Earthscan.

Pick your Poision. The pesticide scandal. New Internationalist May 2000

SAP Monitor. Zambia, no 23, 2000

State of the World. Lester R Brown & Christiphoer Flavin. Earthscan, 1999

The Breakdown of Climate. Human Choices or Global Disaster. Peter Bunyard, Floris Books, 1999

The IMF: Selling the Environment Short. Friends of the Earth, March 2000

Vital Signs. Earthscan, 1999-2000

Whose Earth? Land and Development. Paul Spray, Christian Aid, 1992

Who owes Who? Climate Change, debt, equity and survival. Christian Aid, 1999

World Development Report, World Bank, 2000

Useful Websites:

www.oneworld.org

www.foe.org

www.peopleandplanet.org

www.christain-aid.org.uk

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