SOUTH AFRICA: U.S. ANNOUNCE 50 MILLION DOLLAR INVESTMENT IN CONGO BASIN PROJECT, EARTH SUMMIT LATEST.
Record ID:
472881
SOUTH AFRICA: U.S. ANNOUNCE 50 MILLION DOLLAR INVESTMENT IN CONGO BASIN PROJECT, EARTH SUMMIT LATEST.
- Title: SOUTH AFRICA: U.S. ANNOUNCE 50 MILLION DOLLAR INVESTMENT IN CONGO BASIN PROJECT, EARTH SUMMIT LATEST.
- Date: 5th September 2002
- Summary: (U6) JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (SEPTEMBER 4, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV: VARIOUS OF PEOPLE LEAVING AT SUNDOWN OUTSIDE VENUE IN SANDTON (5 SHOTS) 0.18 2. TV: INTERIOR PLENARY SESSION 0.21 3. MCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) HUGO CHAVEZ, PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA SAYING: "Sometimes heads of state go from summit to summit yet our people go from abyss to abyss" 0.35 4. LV: PLENARY SESSION, APPLAUD 0.39 5. MCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) CHAVEZ SAYING: "It is not logical that the chief states come to discuss things and that our opinion has no impact on the conclusion of a summit like this one. Mr president, I repeat, with sadness for your attention.. the next one will be better. Optimism! the journey has just begun, thank you very much" 1.03 6. GV: PLENARY SESSION 1.06 7. MCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) ST LUCIA MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE, JULIAN R. HUNT SAYING: "So the question that we ask is how is this plan going to be implemented. We are very worried that a number of promises and undertakings have been given at this conference. Some of us have come here at great expense which we cannot really afford. But is this conference going to be another Rio? Are we going to experience another situation where it will take another ten years and another conference and another set of promises and nothing will happen" 1.56 8. MV/GV: DELEGATES APPLAUDED WIDE OF PLENARY HALL; DELEGATES APPLAUDING (2 SHOTS) 2.02 9. LV: US SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL AT PODIUM 2.09 10. MV/MCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) US SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL SAYING: The Congo basin contains a quarter of the world's tropical forest. It is a region of extraordinary biological richness. But the Congo basin forest is being degraded at the rate of 2 million acres every year. We must do something to preserve this global treasure. And that is why, on behalf of President Bush , the American people and our partners I am so pleased to launch with our partners the Congo Basin Forest Partnership. This initiative is a commitment by the United States, the six governments of the Congo basin, other partner governments, conservation and business groups and organisations representing civil society to work with the countries of the Congo basin, to manage their forests in a sustainable fashion" 2.57 11. GV: CONGO BASIN SIGN 3.01 12. MCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) POWELL SAYING: "We have fellow participants in this partnership have agreed to work together to help the countries of the Congo basin to create and manage protected forest areas such as national parks. We will work together to combat illegal logging and other unsustainable practices and we will implement programmes to improve forest management and give people a stake in the preservation of the forest by providing them with sustainable forest-based livelihoods. The Congo basin forest partnership is important" 3.43 13. GV: PEOPLE LISTENING 3.46 14. MCU: (SOUNDBITE) (French) PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF CONGO, DENIS SASSOU-NGUESSO, SAYING: "It was in Yaounde, on the 17th of March 1999 the Central African headsof state , drawing from past experience, got together to create a sustainable (durable) management and concerted, of the Congo Basin forests in order to get the most economic profit out of the forest as well as at the ecological and socio-cultural level" 4.19 15. GV: PEOPLE LISTENING 4.23 16. MV: FLAG POLL ACCIDENTALLY FALLS ON POWELL 4.38 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 20th September 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
- City:
- Country: South Africa
- Topics:
- Reuters ID: LVA6WX64Z919TV6QKDND8X7WLFPM
- Aspect Ratio:
- Story Text: The Earth Summit has wound down in acrimony with jeers
for U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and criticism by
environmentalists that it would do little to help the poor or
the planet.
However on one positive note, the United States said it
will invest 50 million US dollars, over will over the next
four years, in six African countries in Central Africa, as
part of an initiative to preserve forest and wildlife
resources.
With most leaders having left already, delegates to
the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) entered the
final stretch on Wednesday (September 4) as delegates battled
out the final wording of a declaration aimed at combating
poverty and saving the environment.
At a closing session, speaker after speaker faulted a plan
meant to tackle global problems from AIDS to depleted fish
stocks as too weak. In formally agreeing the text, delegates
from almost 200 nations clapped for a scant 10 seconds.
Venezuela's left-wing President Hugo Chavez said the World
Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) had seemed a 10-day
"dialogue of the deaf".
"We go from summit to summit but our peoples go from abyss
to abyss,"Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez said
New targets set by the summit include halving by 2015 the
2.4 billion people without sanitation in the Third World,
minimising harmful effects from chemicals production by 2020
and a pledge to halt the decline in fish stocks by 2015.
But they include scant fresh cash. Current aid from rich
nations totals about $54 billion a year -- or $67 for each of
their citizens. The United Nations reckons goals like halving
poverty by 2015 could be solved if it were doubled. About 1.2
billion people live on less than a dollar a day.
Julian R.Hunt, Minister of Foreign Affairs and
International Trade in St Lucia expressed concern that pans
agreed at the summit would not be implemented. for
implementation of plans agreed at the Summit.
"Is this conference going to be another Rio? Are we going
to experience another situation where it will take another ten
years and another conference and another set of promises and
nothing will happen" he asked.
All delegates remember that many of the promises made at
the First Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, staged amid
great optimism after the end of the Cold War, have been
broken.
Meanwhile US Secretary of State Colin Powell,
representing President George W. Bush, pledged to help the
Congo River Basin project, which brings together six African
countries - namely, Cameroon, the Central African Republic,
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea,
Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo -, the United States
various countries from the European Union.
The United States hopes the partnership will help promote
economic development, alleviate poverty, conserve natural
resources and improve governance.
"The Congo Basin contains a quarter of the world's
tropical forests. It is a region of extraordinary biological
richness.
The Congo Basin forest is being degraded at the rate of two
million acres every year. We must do something to preserve
this global treasure. And that is why on behalf of President
Bush and the American people and our partners, I am so pleased
to launch with our partners the Congo Basin Forest
Partnership. This initiative is a commitment by the United
States the six
governments of the Congo Basin," said Colin Powell.
At the summit, the United States unveiled dozens of
projects with business that aim to clean up the planet,
including 970 million US dollars to help provide fresh water
to the Third World.
"We and our fellow participants in this partnerships is
have agreed to work together to help the countries of the
Congo
Basin to create and manage protected forest areas such as
national parks. We will work together to combat illegal
logging
and other unsustainable practices - and we will implement
programmes to improve forest management and give people a
stake
of the preservation of the forest by providing them with
sustainable forest basis and livelihoods," added Powell.
Powell stressed that this was an initiative which he hoped
would help sustainable development in the Congo Basin.
"It was in Yaounde on the 17th of March in 1999, that the
Heads of State in Central Africa , drawing their lessons from
past experiences, they committed themselves to working towards
sustainable development - determined - the endangered forests
in the Congo River Basin. In order to get the most out of the
forest - on economic level, ecological and socio-cultural
level," said President Denis Nguesso, on behalf of the
countries in the Congo Basin.
Earlier at an event launched to help Third world countries
get access to clean water, Colin Powell, suffered another set
back after he was booed and jeered during the plenary session.
However this time, he could afford to be more light hearted as
a Japanese flag poll accidentally fell on his head.
Earlier, hecklers chanting "Shame on Bush" twice
interrupted Powell as he defended U.S. policies from
criticisms
the world's richest country and biggest polluter does not
really care.
Powell was first jeered after talking about famine in
southern Africa and singling out the government of Zimbabwe
for
criticism of mismanagement. He was booed again when he said
Washington was taking firm action to combat global warming.
But activists slammed Washington as the main hurdle for
the summit's failure to raise aid or set firm new targets as
part
of an overriding drive to halve poverty by 2015 agreed in
2000.
About 1.2 billion people live on less than a dollar a day.
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