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friends of the earth international
world bank’s dirty mining revealed in new
report
december 11, 2003, Washington (US) /
Lisbon (Portugal) -- A new report released
today at the final meeting of a World Bank
review on extractive industries (December
11-13, Lisbon) reveals the devastating and
irreversible social and environmental impacts
of public financing for the fossil fuels and
mining sectors.
The report, '
Hands
Off
: Why International Financial
Institutions Should Stop Drilling, Piping and
Mining’ is released at a groundbreaking
meeting in Lisbon where communities,
indigenous people and representatives of
Non-Governmental Organisations discuss the
impacts of extractive industries with the
World Bank. This meeting is the final episode
of the two year Extractive Industries Review
(EIR) of the World Bank.
The new report describes global and local
resistance to large-scale mining projects
funded by international financial
institutions through 11 case studies, and was
published by Friends of the Earth
International, the world's largest grassroots
environmental network. Case studies include
notorious pipelines like the Chad-Cameroon
and Baku-Ceyhan oil pipelines, and projects
that are currently under consideration at
financial institutions including a major
copper mine in Laos.
The World Bank's independent Extractive
Industries Review [1] recommends that the
Bank stop financing all coal and oil projects
in developing countries. In addition, it
calls for human rights protection and the
right to prior and informed consent for
communities. Many of the EIR recommendations
point to an important shift away from
traditional support to the extractive
industries and are likely to meet with strong
resistance from the Bank's shareholder
countries.
"It is very significant that the harmful
and dangerous effects of investments in oil,
mining and gas are acknowledged by the World
Bank, whose investments are supposed to
alleviate poverty," said in Lisbon Janneke
Bruil of Friends of the Earth International.
“The World Bank should adopt these
recommendations without delay and also take
firm steps to end financing of large scale
mining”, she added.
“Even the World Bank Extractive Industries
Review acknowledges that the benefits of oil,
mining and gas projects are often
questionable,” said Nur Hidayati of Friends
of the Earth Indonesia (WALHI) in Jakarta.
“There is much evidence that the extractive
industries violate indigenous peoples’ rights
and are associated with loss of livelihoods
and climate change.” she added.
This week, in Lisbon, Portugal, civil
society and other interest groups will
discuss ways to ensure that the Bank
implements the EIR's recommendations. The
report will be formally presented to World
Bank President James Wolfensohn in late
December. The Board of the World Bank will
decide whether to adopt the EIR
recommendations at the end of March.
For more information contact
In Washington: Carol Welch, Friends of the
Earth US
+1-202-7837400 or +1-202-222-0719
(mobile)
In Lisbon: (Portugal) Janneke Bruil,
Friends of the Earth International
+31-6-52118998 (mobile)
In Indonesia: Nur Hidayati of Friends of
the Earth Indonesia (WALHI) in Jakarta
+62-21-79193363 or +62-812-9972642
(mobile)
NOTES TO EDITORS:
[1] the Extractive Industries report is
available at
www.eireview.org
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