A leaked draft of World Bank's new "safeguard policies" would put the environment and indigenous people at serious risk.
The World Bank's plan would relax the conditions on which it will lend billions of dollars a year to developing countries, allowing countries to simply opt out of policies to protect the environment or ensure the human rights of indigenous people.
The bank also plans to weaken existing environmental protections to allow mining and logging projects in sensitive areas where local people live. Indigenous people would no longer need to be consulted before these projects begin -- a policy that has been pursued before with disastrous results and hundreds of lives lost.
The bank is eliminating previous requirements to assess a project's impact on people and the environment, instead leaving it up to governments and staff to make their own decisions. Obviously, many countries that want a loan from the World Bank will cave in to the interests of companies creating these massive projects, which have little regard for impoverished indigenous people or the precious lands they inhabit.
Weakened regulations will have devastating effects on entire cultures and irreplaceable natural resources, flora and fauna. Please urge the World Bank to reconsider their plans to weaken environmental protections!
We, the undersigned, are concerned with your proposed new "safeguard policies" that would relax environmental protections to allow mining and logging projects in sensitive areas inhabited by indigenous people.
We understand that the bank is eliminating previous requirements to assess a project's impact on people and the environment, instead leaving it up to governments and staff to make their own decisions. Obviously, the latter will act in their own best interests with little regard for impoverished indigenous people or the precious lands they inhabit.
We believe that the weakened regulations will have devastating effects on entire cultures and irreplaceable natural resources, flora and fauna. We respectfully urge you to reconsider your plans to weaken environmental protections. Thank you for taking the time to read and consider our petition.
