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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 262p-4i. Multilateral development banks and debt-for-nature exchanges
(a) Directions to United States Executive Directors
The Secretary of the Treasury shall direct the United States
Executive Directors of the multilateral development banks to -
(1) negotiate for the creation in each respective multilateral
development bank, except where the Secretary of the Treasury
determines that the provisions of this subsection have previously
been met, of a department that will -
(A) be responsible for environmental protection and resource
conservation, including support for restoration, protection,
and sustainable use policies;
(B) develop and monitor strict environmental guidelines and
policies to govern lending activities; and
(C) actively promote, coordinate and facilitate
debt-for-nature exchanges and the restoration, protection, and
sustainable use of tropical forests, renewable natural
resources, endangered ecosystems and species in debtor
countries;
(2) support and encourage the approval of multilateral
development bank loans which include provisions that foster and
facilitate the implementation of a sound and effective
environmental policy in the borrowing country;
(3) encourage the banks to assist such countries in reducing
and restructuring private debt through the use of a portion of a
project or policy based environmental loan in ways which will
enable such countries to buy back private debt at a rate of
discount available for such debt, at auction in the secondary
market or through negotiations with creditors holding such debt;
(4) seek to ensure that staff of each bank facilitate debtor
countries' collaboration with local and international
non-governmental or private organizations in implementing
debt-for-nature exchanges; and
(5) seek to ensure that each bank adopts policy guidelines
which to the maximum extent possible provide for -
(A) the inclusion of sustainable use policies in loan
agreements negotiated with borrower members;
(B) the adoption of economic programs to foster sound
environmental policies; and
(C) the provision of debtor countries' policy changes or
significant increases in financial resources for use in at
least 1 of the following -
(i) restoration, protection, or sustainable use of the
world's oceans and atmosphere;
(ii) restoration, protection, or sustainable use of diverse
animal and plant species;
(iii) establishment, restoration, protection, and
maintenance of parks and reserves;
(iv) development and implementation of sound systems of
natural resource management;
(v) development and support of local conservation programs;
(vi) training programs to strengthen conservation
institutions and increase scientific, technical, and
managerial capabilities of individuals and organizations
involved in conservation efforts;
(vii) efforts to generate knowledge, increase
understanding, and enhance public commitment to conservation;
(viii) design and implementation of sound programs of land
and ecosystem management; and
(ix) promotion of regenerative approaches in farming,
forestry, and watershed management.
(b) Negotiation of guidelines for restoration, protection, or
sustainable use policies
The United States Executive Directors of the multilateral
development banks shall seek to negotiate with the other executive
directors to provide guidelines for restoration, protection, or
sustainable use policies. Pending the outcome of such negotiations,
the United States Executive Directors shall consider restoration,
protection, or sustainable use policies to be those which -
(1) support development that maintains and restores the
renewable natural resource base so that present and future needs
of debtor countries' populations can be met, while not impairing
critical ecosystems and not exacerbating global environmental
problems;
(2) are environmentally sustainable in that resources are
conserved and managed in an effort to remove pressure on the
natural resource base and to make judicious use of the land so as
to sustain growth and the availability of all natural resources;
(3) support development that does not exceed the limits imposed
by local hydrological cycles, soil, climate, vegetation, and
human cultural practices;
(4) promote the maintenance and restoration of soils,
vegetation, hydrological cycles, wildlife, critical ecosystems
(tropical forests, wetlands, and coastal marine resources),
biological diversity and other natural resources essential to
economic growth and human well-being and shall, when using
natural resources, be implemented to minimize the depletion of
such natural resources; and
(5) take steps, wherever feasible, to prevent pollution that
threatens human health and important biotic systems and to
achieve patterns of energy consumption that meet human needs and
rely on renewable resources.
(c) Inclusion of certain items in guidelines
The United States Executive Directors shall endeavor to include
the provisions of paragraphs (1) through (5) of subsection (b) of
this section in the guidelines developed through the negotiations
specified in this section.
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