Update: February 6, 2001
Helping Natural Ecosystems and Indigenous People —
A View from within the World Bank[*]
by Claudia Sobrevila
I have since childhood been fascinated by nature and the power of natural habitats. As I got older I used to visit places in southern Venezuela where the energy of the air, rocks, water, and plants was so pure that I would be transported to what can only be described as a blissful state of my mind. I certainly did not need drugs or anything else to feel great. Nature is the best high there is to get energetically revitalized and in balance with life and what matters. Little wonder I chose to study ecology and become an environmentalist. I suppose the more intriguing question is why I chose to ply my trade at the World Bank.
I came to work at the World Bank in 1992. I moved from a great job as Chief Ecologist of the Nature Conservancy International program where I helped eight countries in Latin America inventory their natural resources. We would map information on ecosystems and submit proposals to the governments to create national parks. There were compelling environmental, economic and cultural reasons to protect the areas we identified including their incredible biodiversity, watersheds providing fresh water to cities, monuments important to indigenous communities. We were raising awareness among government officials of the incredible riches they possessed and the need to preserve them for future generations. We had some successes. But not enough.
When I told my colleagues I was going to work for the Bank my friends at the Nature Conservancy were incredulous and asked, "How can you work for an organization that is so arrogant, driven by development interests, in the pockets of governments and vested interests, and much too little concerned with the environmental impact of its huge operations? " I did not know and I had some of the same questions. But it was also clear to me that if we were going to preserve the environment it was going to require a much larger concerted effort that involved multilateral financial institutions and governments as well as civil society. So I answered quite truthfully, "Because I cannot believe that everything about the World Bank is bad. There must be something good and if I can touch that something good then it can grow."
I spent five very good years at the Bank. Years full of frustration and struggle to "mainstream" (a Bank word) the environment and make it a part of institutional culture. I then returned the NGO community -another great job, this time with Conservation International as Senior Director for the Andean Countries. Two and a half years later the World Bank asked me to return and that's where I am now. So I've seen the many sides of international environmental politics and have first hand experience of the local, regional and international players that claim to speak for and defend the environment.
Today, my answer to the question of why a serious environmentalist would be working at the World Bank is not much different. The World Bank and other multilaterals have an important role to play because they are big and maintain a dialogue with governments in 152 client countries, and because they can do much good and, hopefully, limit the damage that is going to result from the inevitable development activity in these countries. Put another way, the World Bank's mandate to alleviate poverty through equitable and sustainable development while preserving the environment is a tight-rope walk. And with so many disparate players at so many levels in the public and private domain, the potential for mobilizing people and resources in an institution like the World Bank or the regional development banks is enormous.
I have a wonderfully busy life at the World Bank. I manage five environmental projects in Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil. These projects are funded by the Global Environmental Fund which is managed by the Bank. GEF funds come from the richest countries in the world. The GEF provides grants s opposed to loans to governments, which is the main business of the Bank.
My specialty at the Bank is to help governments to create and maintain their national parks. I work side by side with the very people who do hydroelectric dams and highway projects and often think what bad karma it must be to have to work on road construction opening up virgin pristine forests! But the Bank no longer does huge environmentally damaging projects like these and infrastructure projects must be cleared by Bank environmentalists based upon rigorous environmental impact assessments. This is not to say that mistakes don't happen. But at least, it is fair to say that the Bank is no longer a development-at-any-cost institution.
The Bank lends money to developing countries principally to fight poverty. Most governments want to borrow money for development which will help them to address the problems of their poor and also to generate the resources to pay pack their loans. Much of the borrowing -perhaps 30-40 percent-is for health and education and to address serious social issues. But it is rare that they borrow for environmental needs, nor can the Bank oblige them to do this. When I first arrived at the Bank, two countries had borrowed money to support their national parks system, Venezuela and Brazil. A few years later, battered by the financial crises of the second half of the 1990's, they refused to borrow for the environment. There was no money and their economies were collapsing. With the stabilization of at least a few of the world's economies thanks to the efforts of the Bank, IMF, Governments and the private sector, our hope that borrowing will resume for the environment, especially in countries like Brazil.
Natural areas and parks are so important for our society and so little appreciated. They heal people from diseases, plants have medicinal values, they have incredible potential to reenergize, maintain global climatic equilibrium, cleanse our air and water. If we truly care about our children and our children's children we need to dedicate and rededicate ourselves to the environment. There is really nothing, no single issue as important for our future.
And yet we are so myopic, so self-centered and so unaware. I remember when my son was seven years old I found him throwing water bombs at two men in the street who were cutting down a tree. He was in tears and could not stand the thought of those chain saws cutting the branches of a beautiful tree. The tree was very alive to him. And there was no particular reason to destroy it except that its roots were too big and got in the way of the neighbor's gardening. People can always find a reason to kill a living organism. But why? There is room for everybody! And there is always a reason not to kill a living organism that is orders of magnitude more powerful and more reasonable. If you want to have a sunny garden and your garden is filled with trees, give thanks that you have trees and go find a place to garden. You can have it all!
But back to the World Bank that in 1992 established the Rain Forest Trust Fund, together with the 7 richest countries in the world. This fund supports a new initiative "the Pilot Program to Conserve the Brazilian Rain Forest". The Brazilian Amazon occupies more than half of Brazil's territory. It covers about 5 million square kilometers, a vast area equal in size to about half the continental US or more than the combined territory of 25 European countries. One-fifth of the world's fresh water cycles through its river system. The Amazon is the largest remaining tropical forest region in the world. Because the Amazon is still relatively intact and free from human intervention with its ecosystem functions intact, it is today the main source of vital ecological functions necessary to keep our planet from turning into a disaster area due to global climate change and other, related alterations to our planet's ecology. It is the main battleground where the health and carrying capacity of our planet will be decided. That's why the Bank and the seven donor countries created the Fund. The program is very complex and I will mention only one particular project that has been a great success.
The Amazon rainforest is home to more than 250 different indigenous tribes. These people have long used the rain forest ecosystem without causing major environmental degradation. Their specialized knowledge and stewardship of natural resources are considered by many scientists to be exemplary. As a result of colonization, warfare and disease, the number of indigenous people in Brazil has fallen from an estimated 8 million in the 1500s to about 300,000 today. In addition, there are believed to be 2,000 or more indigenous people living in isolated tribes who have not yet had a significant contact with Brazilian society. Legalization of indigenous lands is an extremely important step towards the preservation of their cultural and spiritual values. However, only 50% of the lands had been recognized in 1994 (41 million hectares).
The World Bank project has supported the legalization of 22 million hectares in 39 indigenous reserves and has identified 23 new reserves not previously recognized before by the government (11 million hectares). This is a tremendous outcome. Not only does it make an enormous contribution to environmental protection, it supports indigenous people's property rights. The Bank is increasingly involved in projects like this-which underlines the good that it can do when it dedicates its efforts to environmental issues.
Much too often, however, even the best people in the Bank and like institutions undertake such projects from a laudable intellectual commitment only. Much better to have both the intellectual and experiential motivation that comes of knowing. Two years ago I organized a trip for 12 persons to visit the rainforests of Venezuela. We traveled with 6 children. Our group was joined by three Indian children who became friends with our children. The result was one of the richest cultural exchanges. My son and I and the others learned many skills such as fishing with curare, carving, and basket weaving. We observed with a certain awe how well our Indian friends fit in with their environment, their patience and strength and purity. We learned respect and so much more from these beautiful Indian children.
The indigenous people of the Amazon are not the only precious jewels that the region holds for humanity. The jewels also number the plants, animals, water, air and soils. Aware that many developing countries are unable to protect their environmental resources alone, some member countries of the World Bank decided to create the Global Environmental Fund. Funds from the richest countries in the world are given as grants to governments in developing nations through the GEF.
The president of the World Bank has also been visionary when, in 1999, he joined the World Wild Life Fund and created a new partnership to create 50 million hectares of new protected forest areas in the world. Soon after, the Brazilian Government joined the initiative, announcing that it would create 25 million hectares in new parks in the Amazon. It is my privilege to be assisting the Brazilian Government in developing this project.
The adherence of Brazil to this initiative is crucial. According to a study released by Conservation International last year, Brazil is the richest country in the world in term of biodiversity – that is, plants and animals. The study identifies the 17 megadiversity countries in the world which contain 50% of all of the planet's plants and animals. Of these 17 countries, Brazil is Number #1. Of a total of 250,000 plant species in the world, 55,570 are found in Brazil, and approximately 25,000 in the Amazon rain forests. Also, of the 43,259 vertebrates exist worldwide, Brazil has 3,131 compared to the US that has 1,651. In terms of fish diversity, the Brazilian Amazon has more than 2,000 fish species compared to 18,910 worldwide.
The program of creating new parks in the Brazilian Amazon will signals that Brazil is beginning to recognize the true value on this incredible resource. Hitherto, the rainforests have been considered limitless. Consequently they have been undervalued – considered almost a free good like the air we breathe-with the consequence that they were burned with impunity and treated as wastelands. Approximately 15 % of the Amazon rain forests have already been cut down. Thousands of species are disappearing because of a myopic emphasis on the near-term, unsubstantial economic gains from unregulated exploitation. The true value of the Amazon forests for the Brazilian economy and the world are truly underestimated. In an effort to right this imbalance Brazilian local and national governments have made a very strategic decision to set aside 10% of the Amazon for conservation-that's 25 million hectares in 10 years. The project has been opposed by many groups representing local and national vested interests. They are afraid that setting aside 10% is going to hinder development. But this is not the case. Many of the parks will be in remote areas. Also, there is enough deforested land in the Amazon where agriculture can be development and made more productive so that new additional areas shouldn't need to be cleared. But will this happen?
Opposition to the parks initiative is based on a mindset that holds tenaciously to two myths. The first is that people believe placing lands under a regime of protection development will be endangered. The second myth is that land that has already been cleared and depredated cannot be productive for agriculture. These myths should be exploded. The protection of vast extensions of natural forest habitat is essential for the health of our planet and its human passengers. It is essential for the vitality that we strive for individually and as a species. These pockets of natural forests or habitats are responsible for keeping the rest of our increasingly devastated world biome clean. Moreover, cleared and seemingly infertile land can become extraordinarily productive and healthy if the right tools are used. The global community needs to make a commitment not to touch any more intact ecosystems in the world and start to make the already abandoned and destroyed lands productive. There is no need for more destruction, absolutely none. There are no valid, sustainable economic values or models that support more destruction. What is behind the destruction is ignorance, greed, easy money and a lack of integrity and responsibility towards life on our planet. We should all declare a moratorium on destroying natural areas. I insist that I am neither ingenuous nor blind to development needs. But we should be able to use technology to improve agricultural and abandoned lands to produce food rather than clearing pristine forest in the nonsensical cycle of burn-plant-and abandon.
As new millennium ethics and the moral imperative for caring for our planet grow worldwide and within the Brazilian society, the parks that Brazilian society is creating will become a reflection of the vision shared by the Government and World Bank The Brazilian society will be richer economically and ecologically for this work. And the world will come to look upon these parks as overshadowing the great pyramids of Egypt, or the astounding Inca Civilization represented by Machu Pichu or even a Picasso's masterpiece because what is on display is incomparable evolution in all of its splendor. The Brazilian society will be holding in trust for humanity an extraordinarily valuable piece of earth history. This is the vision and the hope behind Brazil's 10% project and we should be thankful to Brazil for this service to humanity.
Notwithstanding the good news from Brazil and elsewhere in the world, a huge challenge remains, the World Bank alone cannot ever hope to stop the destruction of the environment and indigenous people. This can only be done if concerned governments, civil society groups and individuals join hands to stop the cultural and spiritual devastation. Indigenous people need to be approached with respect and with a profound appreciation for their different value systems. They need to be approached by spiritually mature people who will not allow their egos and cultural boundness to damage the pure souls of these threatened. They need to be approached from the heart. And the funding and development assistance must be flexible, culturally sensitive, and also from the heart, otherwise we risk transferring our vices with their attendant risks. We must bring vision and new millennium values. Our lives and the lives of future generations are at stake.
* The interpretations and conclusions in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank or its member institutions.
Top of Page
A View from within the World Bank[*]
by Claudia Sobrevila
I have since childhood been fascinated by nature and the power of natural habitats. As I got older I used to visit places in southern Venezuela where the energy of the air, rocks, water, and plants was so pure that I would be transported to what can only be described as a blissful state of my mind. I certainly did not need drugs or anything else to feel great. Nature is the best high there is to get energetically revitalized and in balance with life and what matters. Little wonder I chose to study ecology and become an environmentalist. I suppose the more intriguing question is why I chose to ply my trade at the World Bank.I came to work at the World Bank in 1992. I moved from a great job as Chief Ecologist of the Nature Conservancy International program where I helped eight countries in Latin America inventory their natural resources. We would map information on ecosystems and submit proposals to the governments to create national parks. There were compelling environmental, economic and cultural reasons to protect the areas we identified including their incredible biodiversity, watersheds providing fresh water to cities, monuments important to indigenous communities. We were raising awareness among government officials of the incredible riches they possessed and the need to preserve them for future generations. We had some successes. But not enough.
When I told my colleagues I was going to work for the Bank my friends at the Nature Conservancy were incredulous and asked, "How can you work for an organization that is so arrogant, driven by development interests, in the pockets of governments and vested interests, and much too little concerned with the environmental impact of its huge operations? " I did not know and I had some of the same questions. But it was also clear to me that if we were going to preserve the environment it was going to require a much larger concerted effort that involved multilateral financial institutions and governments as well as civil society. So I answered quite truthfully, "Because I cannot believe that everything about the World Bank is bad. There must be something good and if I can touch that something good then it can grow."
I spent five very good years at the Bank. Years full of frustration and struggle to "mainstream" (a Bank word) the environment and make it a part of institutional culture. I then returned the NGO community -another great job, this time with Conservation International as Senior Director for the Andean Countries. Two and a half years later the World Bank asked me to return and that's where I am now. So I've seen the many sides of international environmental politics and have first hand experience of the local, regional and international players that claim to speak for and defend the environment.
Today, my answer to the question of why a serious environmentalist would be working at the World Bank is not much different. The World Bank and other multilaterals have an important role to play because they are big and maintain a dialogue with governments in 152 client countries, and because they can do much good and, hopefully, limit the damage that is going to result from the inevitable development activity in these countries. Put another way, the World Bank's mandate to alleviate poverty through equitable and sustainable development while preserving the environment is a tight-rope walk. And with so many disparate players at so many levels in the public and private domain, the potential for mobilizing people and resources in an institution like the World Bank or the regional development banks is enormous.
I have a wonderfully busy life at the World Bank. I manage five environmental projects in Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil. These projects are funded by the Global Environmental Fund which is managed by the Bank. GEF funds come from the richest countries in the world. The GEF provides grants s opposed to loans to governments, which is the main business of the Bank.
My specialty at the Bank is to help governments to create and maintain their national parks. I work side by side with the very people who do hydroelectric dams and highway projects and often think what bad karma it must be to have to work on road construction opening up virgin pristine forests! But the Bank no longer does huge environmentally damaging projects like these and infrastructure projects must be cleared by Bank environmentalists based upon rigorous environmental impact assessments. This is not to say that mistakes don't happen. But at least, it is fair to say that the Bank is no longer a development-at-any-cost institution.
The Bank lends money to developing countries principally to fight poverty. Most governments want to borrow money for development which will help them to address the problems of their poor and also to generate the resources to pay pack their loans. Much of the borrowing -perhaps 30-40 percent-is for health and education and to address serious social issues. But it is rare that they borrow for environmental needs, nor can the Bank oblige them to do this. When I first arrived at the Bank, two countries had borrowed money to support their national parks system, Venezuela and Brazil. A few years later, battered by the financial crises of the second half of the 1990's, they refused to borrow for the environment. There was no money and their economies were collapsing. With the stabilization of at least a few of the world's economies thanks to the efforts of the Bank, IMF, Governments and the private sector, our hope that borrowing will resume for the environment, especially in countries like Brazil.
Natural areas and parks are so important for our society and so little appreciated. They heal people from diseases, plants have medicinal values, they have incredible potential to reenergize, maintain global climatic equilibrium, cleanse our air and water. If we truly care about our children and our children's children we need to dedicate and rededicate ourselves to the environment. There is really nothing, no single issue as important for our future.
And yet we are so myopic, so self-centered and so unaware. I remember when my son was seven years old I found him throwing water bombs at two men in the street who were cutting down a tree. He was in tears and could not stand the thought of those chain saws cutting the branches of a beautiful tree. The tree was very alive to him. And there was no particular reason to destroy it except that its roots were too big and got in the way of the neighbor's gardening. People can always find a reason to kill a living organism. But why? There is room for everybody! And there is always a reason not to kill a living organism that is orders of magnitude more powerful and more reasonable. If you want to have a sunny garden and your garden is filled with trees, give thanks that you have trees and go find a place to garden. You can have it all!
But back to the World Bank that in 1992 established the Rain Forest Trust Fund, together with the 7 richest countries in the world. This fund supports a new initiative "the Pilot Program to Conserve the Brazilian Rain Forest". The Brazilian Amazon occupies more than half of Brazil's territory. It covers about 5 million square kilometers, a vast area equal in size to about half the continental US or more than the combined territory of 25 European countries. One-fifth of the world's fresh water cycles through its river system. The Amazon is the largest remaining tropical forest region in the world. Because the Amazon is still relatively intact and free from human intervention with its ecosystem functions intact, it is today the main source of vital ecological functions necessary to keep our planet from turning into a disaster area due to global climate change and other, related alterations to our planet's ecology. It is the main battleground where the health and carrying capacity of our planet will be decided. That's why the Bank and the seven donor countries created the Fund. The program is very complex and I will mention only one particular project that has been a great success.
The Amazon rainforest is home to more than 250 different indigenous tribes. These people have long used the rain forest ecosystem without causing major environmental degradation. Their specialized knowledge and stewardship of natural resources are considered by many scientists to be exemplary. As a result of colonization, warfare and disease, the number of indigenous people in Brazil has fallen from an estimated 8 million in the 1500s to about 300,000 today. In addition, there are believed to be 2,000 or more indigenous people living in isolated tribes who have not yet had a significant contact with Brazilian society. Legalization of indigenous lands is an extremely important step towards the preservation of their cultural and spiritual values. However, only 50% of the lands had been recognized in 1994 (41 million hectares).
The World Bank project has supported the legalization of 22 million hectares in 39 indigenous reserves and has identified 23 new reserves not previously recognized before by the government (11 million hectares). This is a tremendous outcome. Not only does it make an enormous contribution to environmental protection, it supports indigenous people's property rights. The Bank is increasingly involved in projects like this-which underlines the good that it can do when it dedicates its efforts to environmental issues.Much too often, however, even the best people in the Bank and like institutions undertake such projects from a laudable intellectual commitment only. Much better to have both the intellectual and experiential motivation that comes of knowing. Two years ago I organized a trip for 12 persons to visit the rainforests of Venezuela. We traveled with 6 children. Our group was joined by three Indian children who became friends with our children. The result was one of the richest cultural exchanges. My son and I and the others learned many skills such as fishing with curare, carving, and basket weaving. We observed with a certain awe how well our Indian friends fit in with their environment, their patience and strength and purity. We learned respect and so much more from these beautiful Indian children.
The indigenous people of the Amazon are not the only precious jewels that the region holds for humanity. The jewels also number the plants, animals, water, air and soils. Aware that many developing countries are unable to protect their environmental resources alone, some member countries of the World Bank decided to create the Global Environmental Fund. Funds from the richest countries in the world are given as grants to governments in developing nations through the GEF.
The president of the World Bank has also been visionary when, in 1999, he joined the World Wild Life Fund and created a new partnership to create 50 million hectares of new protected forest areas in the world. Soon after, the Brazilian Government joined the initiative, announcing that it would create 25 million hectares in new parks in the Amazon. It is my privilege to be assisting the Brazilian Government in developing this project.The adherence of Brazil to this initiative is crucial. According to a study released by Conservation International last year, Brazil is the richest country in the world in term of biodiversity – that is, plants and animals. The study identifies the 17 megadiversity countries in the world which contain 50% of all of the planet's plants and animals. Of these 17 countries, Brazil is Number #1. Of a total of 250,000 plant species in the world, 55,570 are found in Brazil, and approximately 25,000 in the Amazon rain forests. Also, of the 43,259 vertebrates exist worldwide, Brazil has 3,131 compared to the US that has 1,651. In terms of fish diversity, the Brazilian Amazon has more than 2,000 fish species compared to 18,910 worldwide.
The program of creating new parks in the Brazilian Amazon will signals that Brazil is beginning to recognize the true value on this incredible resource. Hitherto, the rainforests have been considered limitless. Consequently they have been undervalued – considered almost a free good like the air we breathe-with the consequence that they were burned with impunity and treated as wastelands. Approximately 15 % of the Amazon rain forests have already been cut down. Thousands of species are disappearing because of a myopic emphasis on the near-term, unsubstantial economic gains from unregulated exploitation. The true value of the Amazon forests for the Brazilian economy and the world are truly underestimated. In an effort to right this imbalance Brazilian local and national governments have made a very strategic decision to set aside 10% of the Amazon for conservation-that's 25 million hectares in 10 years. The project has been opposed by many groups representing local and national vested interests. They are afraid that setting aside 10% is going to hinder development. But this is not the case. Many of the parks will be in remote areas. Also, there is enough deforested land in the Amazon where agriculture can be development and made more productive so that new additional areas shouldn't need to be cleared. But will this happen?
Opposition to the parks initiative is based on a mindset that holds tenaciously to two myths. The first is that people believe placing lands under a regime of protection development will be endangered. The second myth is that land that has already been cleared and depredated cannot be productive for agriculture. These myths should be exploded. The protection of vast extensions of natural forest habitat is essential for the health of our planet and its human passengers. It is essential for the vitality that we strive for individually and as a species. These pockets of natural forests or habitats are responsible for keeping the rest of our increasingly devastated world biome clean. Moreover, cleared and seemingly infertile land can become extraordinarily productive and healthy if the right tools are used. The global community needs to make a commitment not to touch any more intact ecosystems in the world and start to make the already abandoned and destroyed lands productive. There is no need for more destruction, absolutely none. There are no valid, sustainable economic values or models that support more destruction. What is behind the destruction is ignorance, greed, easy money and a lack of integrity and responsibility towards life on our planet. We should all declare a moratorium on destroying natural areas. I insist that I am neither ingenuous nor blind to development needs. But we should be able to use technology to improve agricultural and abandoned lands to produce food rather than clearing pristine forest in the nonsensical cycle of burn-plant-and abandon.
As new millennium ethics and the moral imperative for caring for our planet grow worldwide and within the Brazilian society, the parks that Brazilian society is creating will become a reflection of the vision shared by the Government and World Bank The Brazilian society will be richer economically and ecologically for this work. And the world will come to look upon these parks as overshadowing the great pyramids of Egypt, or the astounding Inca Civilization represented by Machu Pichu or even a Picasso's masterpiece because what is on display is incomparable evolution in all of its splendor. The Brazilian society will be holding in trust for humanity an extraordinarily valuable piece of earth history. This is the vision and the hope behind Brazil's 10% project and we should be thankful to Brazil for this service to humanity.
Notwithstanding the good news from Brazil and elsewhere in the world, a huge challenge remains, the World Bank alone cannot ever hope to stop the destruction of the environment and indigenous people. This can only be done if concerned governments, civil society groups and individuals join hands to stop the cultural and spiritual devastation. Indigenous people need to be approached with respect and with a profound appreciation for their different value systems. They need to be approached by spiritually mature people who will not allow their egos and cultural boundness to damage the pure souls of these threatened. They need to be approached from the heart. And the funding and development assistance must be flexible, culturally sensitive, and also from the heart, otherwise we risk transferring our vices with their attendant risks. We must bring vision and new millennium values. Our lives and the lives of future generations are at stake.
 Claudia Sobrevila is Senior Biodiversity Specialist at the World Bank. She has a PhD in ecology from Harvard University and has held key positions at the Nature Conservancy and at Conservation International. Claudia's travels have always taken her to remote natural areas in South and Central America where she has frequently been able to meet indigenous groups. Three years ago, while she was in a small village on a tributary of the Amazon River, she met Lama Gangchen Rinpoche, a Tibetan-born teacher. Lama Gangchen is a healer and travels regularly to places in the world with pure crystal energy where heaven and earth come together. He teaches how to cultivate an inner and pure environment through regular meditation. Lama Gangchen believes that if humans had a pure inner environment, our planet's environment would also be pure. After this magical encounter, Claudia has twice gone to Tibet, where Lama Gangchen goes regularly to teach and connect with the pure, crystal-clear energy of the Himalayas.In Tibet, Claudia also met Alfredo Sfeir Younis, a World Bank director and economist who has written and spoken extensively on spirituality and development. The result of these incredible encounters has been the creation of a new foundation, EcoVillages Foundation. Lama Gangchen, Alfredo, and Claudia participate on the board of directors on a volunteer basis. The EcoVillages Foundation is a non-profit organization legally incorporated in the United States. The purpose of the foundation is to help traditional peoples with deep spiritual values living in the planet's intact ecosystems to live healthy and peaceful lives and to protect their lands and culture from careless, environmentally-damaging development. The first focus of the foundation is to support a few Amazon and Himalayan projects.  The World Bank and other multilateral and government efforts cannot hope to reach in a timely fashion the small indigenous groups in the Himalayas and in the Amazon that are being threatened. With funding and dedicated specialists with the right spiritual values, EcoVillages will bring hope to these villages. EcoVillages will depend upon concerned individuals like yourselves and enlightened foundations to achieve these ends. And with your support, the EcoVillages projects will become the vehicle for accomplishing long-term, healthy development with preservation of key Himalayan and Amazonian Villages. To become a participant of the EcoVillages Foundation will be your way and ours of showing how much we care for the future of our planet and the indigenous peoples who have for so long been the stewards of this extraordinary inheritance and of a spiritual way of life no less worthy of preservation for mankind. For information on Ecovillages, write to Ecovillages@earthlink.net. |
* The interpretations and conclusions in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank or its member institutions.