World Bank OKs $1.3B environmental loan to Brazil

The Associated Press
Published: March 5, 2009

WASHINGTON: The World Bank said Thursday it will lend Brazil $1.3 billion to help the country protect its Amazon jungle and other fragile ecosystems and deal with climate change.
In a statement, the bank said environmental protection is important particularly in Brazil, which is home to one-third of existing tropical rain forest, as well as the world's largest reservoir of fresh water and most biodiverse savanna.
The money aims to help Brazil curb deforestation in the Amazon; conserve the remaining Atlantic forest; protect the quality and availability of water; and accommodate increased energy demands that are straining the country's "clean energy matrix," which comprises mostly hydroelectric power.
It also will deal with sustainability problems of a country whose ecosystem is particularly "crucial to development and people's welfare," the statement said.
"The social and economic cost of environmental destruction is high" in Brazil, the bank's Brazil director, Makhtar Diop, was quoted as saying.

"Smooth coordination of policies and procedures within the Brazilian environmental management system, combined with an increased commitment from the financial sector to long-term sustainability, is key to ... ensuring growth that is environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive."