VZCZCXRO9682
RR RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHPB RUEHPOD
DE RUEHBR #1774/01 2601920
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 171920Z SEP 07
FM AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9973
INFO RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 0133
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN 0136
RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK 0297
RUEHUP/AMEMBASSY BUDAPEST 0123
RUEHCP/AMEMBASSY COPENHAGEN 0157
RUEHOR/AMEMBASSY GABORONE 0129
RUEHKT/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU 0133
RUEHLC/AMEMBASSY LIBREVILLE 0135
RUEHSJ/AMEMBASSY SAN JOSE 0643
RUEHSV/AMEMBASSY SUVA 0115
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 0317
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES 4998
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO 6417
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ 5623
RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA 3568
RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO 2282
RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA 4319
RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION 6285
RUEHGE/AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN 1309
RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO 7009
RUEHPO/AMEMBASSY PARAMARIBO 1346
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 3787
RUEHRG/AMCONSUL RECIFE 7132
RUEHSO/AMCONSUL SAO PAULO 0799
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 5105
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RHEBAAA/DOE WASHDC
RUEHC/DOI WASHDC
RUEAWJA/DOJ WASHDC
RUEAEPA/HQ EPA WASHDC
RUEANAT/NASA HQ WASHDC
RUCPDC/NOAA WASHDC
RUMIAAA/USCINCSO MIAMI FL
RUEHRC/USDA WASHDC
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 12 BRASILIA 001774 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT PASS USAID TO LAC/RSD, LAC/SAM, G/ENV, PPC/ENV 
TREASURY FOR USED IBRD AND IDB AND INTL/MDB 
USDA FOR FOREST SERVICE: LIZ MAHEW 
INTERIOR FOR DIR INT AFFAIRS: K WASHBURN 
INTERIOR FOR FWS: TOM RILEY 
INTERIOR FOR NPS: JONATHAN PUTNAM 
INTERIOR PASS USGS FOR INTERNATIONAL: J WEAVER 
JUSTICE FOR ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES: JWEBB 
EPA FOR INTERNATIONAL: CAM HILL-MACON 
USDA FOR ARS/INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH: G FLANLEY 
NSF FOR INTERNATIONAL: HAROLD STOLBERG 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV EAGR EAID TBIO ECON SOCI XR BR
SUBJECT: SOUTH AMERICA ESTH NEWS, NUMBER 99 
 
 
BRASILIA 00001774  001.2 OF 012 
 
 
¶1.  The following is the ninety-nine in a series of newsletters, 
published by the Brasilia Regional Environmental Hub, covering 
environment, science and technology, and health news in South 
America.  The information below was gathered from news sources from 
across the region, and the views expressed do not necessarily 
reflect those of the Hub office or our constituent posts. 
Addressees who would like to receive a user-friendly email version 
of this newsletter should contact Larissa Stoner at 
stonerla@state.gov.  The e-mail version also contains a calendar of 
upcoming ESTH events in the region.  NOTE: THE NEWSLETTER IS NOW 
ALSO AVAILABLE ON THE BRASILIA INTRANET PAGE, BY CLICKING ON THE 
'HUB' LINK. 
 
¶2. Table of Contents 
 
Agriculture 
--(3)Embrapa and BASF create first Brazilian genetically modified 
soybean variety 
--(4)Peru City Bans GM to Protect Native Potatoes 
 
Forests 
--(5)Brazil Launches Inquiry into Illegal Logging Claims 
--(6)Chile's: Senate Passes Native Forest Law 
--(7)Chile's Forestry Sector Set to Expand Internationally 
--(8)Peru-Brazil: Tribes Flee 'Red Gold' Rush 
--(9)Timber Stolen From Indigenous Land in Brazil Receives 
Certification from Smartwood-FSC Peru 
--(10)Brazil: Steel and Eucalyptus Heat Up Eastern Amazon 
 
Fishing & Marine Conservation 
--(11)Chile: Highly Contagious Fish Virus Detected In Chiloe 
 
Protected Areas 
--(12)In the Amazon: Conservation or Colonialism? 
 
Science & Technology 
--(13)Venezuela: Shell Allocates USD2.6 Million for Science 
 
Waste Management & Pollution 
--(14)Guyana: World Wildlife Fund Sounds Mercury Warning 
--(15)Chile's Conama Wants New Study on River Polluted By Celco 
--(16)Paraguay: Hospitals - Generating Health or Pollution? 
 
BRASILIA 00001774  002.2 OF 012 
 
 
 
Energy 
--(17)Brazil Works on Biofuel Environmental Certification 
--(18)Guyana Can Be Bio-Fuel Pioneer, says IDB President 
--(19)Ethanol Sugarcane Threatens Brazil's Wooded Savanna 
--(20)Brazilian Amazon Produces Sugar Cane For Ethanol 
 
General 
--(21)Guyana Signs Millennium Challenge Corporation Grant to Support 
Fiscal Reforms 
--(22)Peru: Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Receives 
Donation from World Bank 
 
----------- 
Agriculture 
----------- 
 
¶3. Embrapa and Basf Create First Brazilian Genetically Modified 
Soybean Variety 
 
AUG. 08, 2007 - The Brazilian federal agricultural research agency 
Embrapa and German multinational BASF announced the development of 
the first Brazilian genetically modified plant: a soybean variety 
resistant to herbicides.  Story says that the product is the result 
of ten years of research and that it will compete with a genetically 
modified variety produced by Monsanto. 
 
Source - Public Affairs US Embassy Brasilia based on report in O 
Estado de Sao Paulo 
 
¶4. Peru City Bans GM to Protect Native Potatoes 
 
JULY 24, 2007 - The regional government of Cusco, Peru has banned 
genetically modified (GM) products in the region to protect the 
diversity of thousands of native potato varieties and other Andean 
food crops.  The order was announced July 20 at a press conference. 
It forbids GM research and the sale, cultivation, use and transport 
of GM products in the Cusco region.  Abel Caballero, head of the 
regional government's natural resources and environment department, 
said the government made the decision after considering the risk of 
genetic and environmental contamination from GM products, as well as 
the threat to people's health and their ancient culture.  The 
 
BRASILIA 00001774  003.2 OF 012 
 
 
government announced they will promote conservation programs for 
native biological crops and programs to recover ancient knowledge 
and practices related to biodiversity.  Developing and using 
genetically modified organisms is currently not allowed in Peru, as 
the country has not yet adopted laws governing their safe use. 
 
Source - SciDev 
 
------- 
Forests 
------- 
 
¶5. Brazil Launches Inquiry into Illegal Logging Claims 
 
AUG. 23, 2007 - Brazil's government has launched an investigation 
following accusations that it was selling off large tracts of the 
Amazon under cover of sustainable development programs.  The 
allegations, first reported in The Independent this week, centered 
on a program to settle homeless people in the Amazon which has been 
hijacked by commercial logging interests.  Greenpeace, which led an 
eight-month investigation into the settlements, said the policy was 
leading to uncontrolled logging and deforestation.  Felipe Fritz 
Braga, the federal prosecutor in Santarem in the west of the state 
of Para, where the new settlements have been created, has begun 
civil proceedings demanding the closure of all 99 settlements 
created in the region between 2005 and 2007.  All were created 
without the environmental license required by law.  Greenpeace says 
that the new settlement program is opening the forest up to "gross 
exploitation". The Environment minister, Marina Silva, has said that 
the distribution of land to poor families is important, but that the 
claims will be investigated in full. 
 
Source - Independent 
 
¶6. Chile's: Senate Passes Native Forest Law 
 
AUG. 19, 2007 - After more than 15 years of delay and revision, a 
law offering limited protection for Chile's native forests was 
finally approved by the Senate Aug. 14.  The vote was unanimous, 
35-0.  Most analysts attribute the 15-year delay to a strong lobby 
by Chile's politically powerful forestry company lobby, led by the 
Matte and Angelini business conglomerates.  Lack of serious 
 
BRASILIA 00001774  004.2 OF 012 
 
 
legislation protecting Chile's native hardwood forests has given 
them carte blanche to develop hundreds of thousands of pine and 
eucalyptus tree plantations, which oftentimes replaced native 
forests.  The new Forestry Law will now be debated in the House of 
Deputies, and is likely to pass with little modification by the end 
of the year. 
 
Source - WorldPress 
 
¶7. Chile's Forestry Sector Set to Expand Internationally 
 
AUG. 22, 2007 - Chilean forestry companies COPEC, CMPC, and Masisa 
are focusing on international expansion projects after reporting 
remarkably high earnings for the first half of this year due to 
sharp price increases for their products.  But critics say the 
industry should pay greater attention to environmental problems at 
home before spending vast sums of money on international expansion. 
COPEC, of the Angelini group, is currently negotiating the 
acquisition of more forestry property and a saw mill in Brazil from 
Stora Enso, a global forest product company.  Meanwhile, the Matte 
group's CMPC cellulose production company recently completed its 
Santa Fe II plant and is now expanding internationally in Uruguay, 
Argentina, Peru, and Mexico.  Finally, the Masisa forestry company 
is exploring business opportunities in other South American 
countries after quadrupling its productivity and earning US$19.5 
million in the first half of this year. 
 
Source - Santiago Times (no link) 
 
¶8. Peru-Brazil: Tribes Flee 'Red Gold' Rush 
 
AUG. 03, 2007 - A large group of uncontacted Indians has appeared in 
a remote village in the Amazon rainforest near the Peru-Brazil 
border, a Brazilian government official and expert on uncontacted 
tribes has reported.  The Indians are believed to have fled from 
Peru into Brazil because of illegal loggers sweeping through Peru's 
rainforests in search of rare mahogany, known as 'red gold.'  The 
loggers are destroying the Indians' territories, forcing them to 
seek refuge elsewhere and leading to dangerous contacts with 
outsiders.  'We are on the verge of disaster. Illegal logging in 
protected areas in Peru is pushing the uncontacted tribes into 
Brazil, which could cause conflicts and lead to their appearance in 
 
BRASILIA 00001774  005.2 OF 012 
 
 
places where they have never been seen before,' said Jos Carlos dos 
Reis Meirelles Junior, head of the Indian Protection post near the 
Peru border.  Peru has some of the world's last commercially-viable 
mahogany stands in the world, growing in areas inhabited by some of 
the world's last uncontacted tribes.  Stephen Corry, Survival's 
Director, said 'The Peruvian government must act now to stop the 
logging on the uncontacted tribes' land.  If it doesn't, they could 
be the first people to be made extinct in the 21st century.' 
 
Source - Scoop 
 
¶9. Timber Stolen From Indigenous Land in Brazil Receives 
Certification from Smartwood-FSC Peru 
 
JULY 30, 2007 - The Ashaninka indigenous people in the Apiwtxa 
community in Acre have published a letter on the invasions along the 
Brazil-Peruvian border, in which they harshly criticize the 
Rainforest Alliance's SmartWood Program, which fails to consider the 
illegal actions of the Forestal Venao timber company over the last 
few years and, in April 2007, granted the company FSC certification 
in Peru.  According to the Ashaninka, before deciding to certify 
Forestal Venao, the SmartWood Program should have consulted the 
surrounding population, to understand what its true practices and 
environmental, social and cultural impacts have been, including in 
Brazil.  The Ashaninka claim that Forestal Venao is also supporting 
the establishment of new indigenous lands on the Peruvian side, 
bringing in families from other regions.  "The leaders of these 
communities have allied themselves to the company, interested in 
logging along the border between Brazil and Peru." 
 
Source - Amazonia 
 
¶10. Brazil: Steel and Eucalyptus Heat Up Eastern Amazon 
 
JUL 02, 2007 - Brazil's Environment Ministry entered a minefield 
when it proposed a sustainable forest district to contain 
deforestation in the steel-making center of Carajas, one of the most 
devastated and violent areas in the Amazon.  With a resounding "'No' 
to projects that involve destruction and death," local social and 
environmental movements rejected the idea, which they see as a 
continuation of the deforestation process of the eastern Amazon, 
aggravated by promotion of eucalyptus monoculture to obtain charcoal 
 
BRASILIA 00001774  006.2 OF 012 
 
 
to fuel the steel factories.   Meanwhile, the industry executives 
want to change the legislation that requires preserving up to 80 
percent of the forests of existing properties within the boundaries 
of the "Legal Amazon", encompassing nine Brazilian states.  The 
local companies "will only sustain themselves if there is a 
50-percent reduction" in the forest coverage quota, because there 
are too many agricultural problems and previous deforestation, says 
Ricardo Nascimento, president of the Iron Industrial Syndicate, of 
the northeastern state of Maranhao.  But that move would trigger 
protests from a world increasingly mobilized against climate change, 
one of whose principal causes is precisely the deforestation of the 
vast Amazon region. 
 
Source - Tierramerica 
 
----------------------------- 
Fishing & Marine Conservation 
----------------------------- 
 
¶11. Chile: Highly Contagious Fish Virus Detected In Chiloe 
 
AUG. 1, 2007 - Scientists in Chile and Canada have confirmed the 
presence in Chiloe (Region X) of Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA), a 
highly contagious virus that can be lethal to fish but does not 
affect humans.  The confirmation prompted SalmonChile, the country's 
private salmon producers association, to declare an industry-wide 
health alert.  To avoid the spread of the disease, which was 
detected on two Marine Harvest farms, area producers were asked to 
take preventative measures, which include restricting the movement 
of salmon. Norwegian-owned Marine Harvest in the world's largest 
salmon producer. 
 
Source - Santiago Times (no link) 
 
--------------- 
Protected Areas 
--------------- 
 
¶12. In the Amazon: Conservation or Colonialism? 
 
July 26, 2007 - Depending on one's point of view, the World Wildlife 
Fund's financial support of a nature reserve here on the Rio Negro 
 
BRASILIA 00001774  007.2 OF 012 
 
 
is either part of a laudable attempt to conserve the Amazon jungle - 
or the leading edge of a nefarious plot by foreign environmental 
groups to wrest control of the world's largest rain forest from 
Brazil and replace it with international rule.  In 2003, after 
signing an agreement with the WWF and the World Bank, the Brazilian 
government created the Amazon Region Protected Areas program.  Since 
then, more than a score of national parks and reserves covering an 
area larger than New York, New Jersey and Connecticut combined have 
been brought into that network and provided with an infusion of new 
funds.  But this effort has aroused the suspicions of powerful 
business and political groups in Brazil that want to integrate the 
Amazon into the country's economy through dams, mining projects, 
highways, ports, logging and agricultural exports. 
 
Source - IHT 
 
-------------------- 
Science & Technology 
-------------------- 
 
¶13. Venezuela: Shell Allocates USD2.6 Million for Science 
 
AUG. 25, 2007 - Venezuela's Observatory for Science, Technology, and 
Innovation, which is part of the Ministry of Science, will increase 
by 20 percent it's funding for scientist under the Research 
Promotion Program, which includes 5,222 scientists.  This increase 
will be possible thanks to funding from Shell Oil Company. 
Researchers are given the extra funding on a monthly basis once 
their scientific productivity is proven to be laudable of the 
funding. 
 
Source - SciDev 
 
---------------------------- 
Waste Management & Pollution 
---------------------------- 
 
¶14. Guyana: World Wildlife Fund Sounds Mercury Warning 
 
AUG. 22, 2007 - According to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Guyana, 
unless adequate measures are taken to trap mercury after it is used 
in mining operations, mercury will continue to pose health threats 
 
BRASILIA 00001774  008.2 OF 012 
 
 
to those persons living in and around mining camps.  WWF 
representative Rickford Vieira issued this warning during a 
presentation to delegates at the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission 
(GGMC) mining conference.  Vieira pointed out that while efforts 
have been made by GGMC to monitor mining operations, he believes 
that the commission's work is limited somewhat because of 
insufficient personnel.  Because of Guyana's vast interior, mining 
camps are sometimes located very far away from each other and 
according to Vieira there are instances where only one engineer or 
five officers are in charge of monitoring a whole area and so it is 
difficult for them to visit every operation.  He explained that the 
great influx of miners from nearby Brazil, who are now scattered 
throughout the interior, has now made it harder for the commission 
to contain and adequately manage the sector. 
 
Source - StabroekNews 
 
¶15. Chile's Conama Wants New Study on River Polluted By Celco 
 
AUG. 8, 2007 - Chile's National Environmental Commission (Conama) 
announced it will launch a study to gauge the environmental damage 
in that Mataquito River caused by pollution from a nearby CELCO wood 
pulp plant.  Additionally, Conama disclosed it will seek 
international aide for this initiative by invoking of The Convention 
on Wetlands Treaty.  Aside from studying the environmental impact to 
the river, Conama hopes to generate a "Recovery and Compensation 
Plan" which will include possible ways to undue damage to the river 
and restore the area's natural beauty.  The work will be 
concentrated between a point three kilometers upstream from the 
CELCO plant and Mataquito River's opening to the sea.  Controversy 
concerning this river dates from June 5, when residents near the 
Mataquito River began noticing thousands of dead fish. The problem, 
which was immediately attributed to the nearby CELCO plant, also 
affected birds and livestock. 
 
Source - Santiago Times (no link) 
 
¶16. Paraguay: Hospitals - Generating Health or Pollution? 
 
AUG. 01, 2007 - It has been a year [since] the government's 
declaration of a health emergency when the two obsolete incinerators 
that disposed of the waste generated by the city's public hospitals 
 
BRASILIA 00001774  009.2 OF 012 
 
 
were closed down.  Given the lack of other means of disposing of 
hospital waste, collection was suspended for nearly two months.  The 
accumulation of waste reached levels incompatible with minimal 
hygiene standards, to the point that scheduled surgical operations 
had to be cancelled for fear of the spread of hospital infections. 
Paraguay has one of the highest rates of production of waste per 
hospital bed in the region. The Public Health Ministry reports that 
an average of three kg per patient are generated, far above 
Argentina's 800 grams and Brazil and Chile's 900 grams.  The Public 
Health Ministry launched a program last year to reduce that quantity 
by means of in situ separation of waste.  The department of health 
services is training health personnel to classify garbage by 
disposing of it in three different kinds of bags: black for general 
waste that requires no special treatment; yellow for uncontaminated 
plastics; and red for pathogenic waste.  Under a draft law that is 
in debate in Congress, management of hospital waste "would be the 
exclusive responsibility of the health centre that generates it, 
whether public or private," said Romero. 
 
Source - IPS 
 
------ 
Energy 
------ 
 
¶17. Brazil Works on Biofuel Environmental Certification 
 
AUG. 27, 2007 - Federal agricultural research agency Embrapa plans 
to release in September the first mechanism to evaluate the 
environmental impact of biofuel production, which is the first step 
towards the creation of a global environmental quality certification 
for this sector. Biodiesel production from the palm oil plant should 
be the first to receive this "eco-certification," which is being 
developed with French agricultural research institution Cerad. 
 
Source - Public Affairs US Embassy Brasilia 
 
¶18. Guyana Can Be Bio-Fuel Pioneer, says IDB President 
 
AUG. 07, 2007 - Guyana is to receive a US$850,000 grant from Japan 
through the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to screen 
bio-energy proposals.  The President of the IDB, Luis Alberto Moreno 
 
BRASILIA 00001774  010.2 OF 012 
 
 
told the gathering that the grant would help to jump start 
investment for bio fuel production and co-generation using bio-mass. 
According to the press report, a number of companies from Brazil, 
the US and India have indicated through proposals their interest in 
investing in bio-fuel/agro-energy production in Guyana. Moreno 
disclosed, too, that in the coming months, as part of a green energy 
initiative, the IDB would begin to disburse grants and loans to the 
tune of US$300M on sustainable energy programs and climate change 
initiatives.  The funds would be used to finance projects in energy 
efficiency and renewable bio-energy. 
 
Source - StabroekNews 
 
¶19. Ethanol Sugarcane Threatens Brazil's Wooded Savanna 
 
JULY 31, 2007 - In the past four decades, more than half of the 
Cerrado ecosystem has been transformed by the encroachment of cattle 
ranchers and soybean farmers.  And now another demand is quickly 
eating into the landscape: sugarcane, the raw material for Brazilian 
ethanol.  "Deforestation in the Cerrado is actually happening at a 
higher rate than it has in the Amazon," said John Buchanan, senior 
director of business practices for Conservation International in 
Arlington. "If the actual deforestation rates continue, all the 
remaining vegetation in the Cerrado could be lost by the year 2030. 
That would be a huge loss of biodiversity."  The Brazilian 
government and big agribusiness companies say that the expansion of 
soybean and sugarcane fields doesn't necessarily mean devastation of 
the Cerrado, which hosts an estimated 160,000 species of animals and 
plants, many threatened with extinction.  They say they plant on 
wastelands and pastures where cattle once grazed, improving the soil 
quality and productivity.  But environmental groups argue that as 
soy and sugarcane displace cattle and less lucrative crops, ranchers 
are moving farther into the unspoiled areas of the Cerrado. 
 
Source - Washington Post 
 
¶20. Brazilian Amazon Produces Sugar Cane For Ethanol 
 
JULY 31, 2007 - Contrary to some government assertions, there is 
significant production of sugar cane in the Brazilian Amazon for 
ethanol production, and it is growing.  Government figures indicate 
that sugar cane production in the Amazon region states of Amazonas, 
 
BRASILIA 00001774  011.2 OF 012 
 
 
Maranhao, Mato Grosso, Par and Tocantins has increased from 17.6 
million tons to 19.3 million tons in one year.  Those figures don't 
include Acre, which according to the Brazilian agricultural research 
agency Empraba has the same potential for sugar cane production as 
traditional producers like Sao Paulo and Pernambuco: 3% of its area 
is suitable for sugar cane production and the state government has 
an incentive program for ethanol. 
 
Source - Public Affairs US Embassy Brasilia based on a report in 
Brazilian daily O Globo 
 
------- 
General 
------- 
 
¶21. Guyana Signs Millennium Challenge Corporation Grant to Support 
Fiscal Reforms 
 
AUG. 23, 2007 - A Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Threshold 
Program agreement has been signed between the United States and 
Guyana. The two-year US$6.7 million program focuses on reducing 
Guyana's fiscal deficit by improving its ability to collect revenue 
and better manage its budget.  Additionally, the program will help 
reduce the number of days and cost to start a business by 
streamlining business registrations.  MCC's Threshold Program is 
designed to assist countries that are on the "threshold" of 
eligibility for Millennium Challenge Account Compacts. Threshold 
Program assistance is used to help countries address the specific 
policy weaknesses indicated by the country's scores on 16 policy 
indicators in three categories-Ruling Justly, Investing in People, 
and Encouraging Economic Freedom.  The assistance package for the 
Government of Guyana is focused on improving the country's 
performance on the Economic Freedom indicator. 
 
Source - Millennium Challenge Corporation 
 
¶22. Peru: Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Receives 
Donation from World Bank 
 
AUG. 09, 2007 - Official gazette El Peruano carried a Ministerial 
Resolution of the Ministry of Energy & Mines (MEM) accepting a 
$300,000 donation from multiple donors managed by the World Bank for 
 
BRASILIA 00001774  012.2 OF 012 
 
 
the implementation in Peru of the "Action Plan for the 
Implementation of the EITI."   EITI, the Extractive Industries 
Transparency Initiative, supports improved governance in 
resource-rich countries through the verification and full 
publication of company payments and government revenues from oil, 
gas, and mining.  The Initiative works to build multi-stakeholder 
partnerships in developing countries in order to increase the 
accountability of governments.  Good governance is a precondition 
for converting large revenues from extractive industries into 
economic growth and poverty reduction. When transparency and 
accountability are weak, the extractive industries may instead 
contribute to poverty, corruption, and conflict-the so-called 
"resource curse."  The EITI is an important step in defeating this 
"curse." 
 
Source - US Embassy Lima 
 
CHICOLA