The Rural Voice, 1991-04, Page 36vt ith the increasing interest in
conservation, I believe we
would do well to discuss
the World Conservation Bank (WCB)
which was proposed at the Fourth
World Wilderness Congress held
September 13 to 18, 1987, in
Denver, Colorado. It will be
the largest bank ever created,
and will contain trillions of
dollars in capitalization, the collateral
being derived from receipt of wilder-
ness properties throughout the world.
It will have central bank powers
similar to those of the Bank of Canada
or the U.S. Federal Reserve central
bank. WCB will create currency and
loans and will engage in international
discounting, countertrade, barter, and
swap actions. I. Michael Sweatman of
the Royal Bank of Canada (and
formerly of the now defunct Mercan-
tile Bank) reportedly will be heading
the WCB in Montreal.
I'll admit, this is all quite a mouth-
ful, and if your head is spinning like
mine was, keep reading. This story
gets even better!
The Fourth World Wilderness
Congress was billed as a worldwide
meeting to address global environ-
mental issues. There were 1,500
people from 60 countries present who
paid $650 to attend. Conservationists
and ecologists comprised about 60 per
cent of the people. Another 30 per
cent were from governments, the
United Nations and other bureaucrats,
while the remaining 10 per cent were
world banking heavyweights.
Featured speakers included James
Baker III, then Secretary of the U.S.
Treasury; David Rockefeller of Chase
Manhattan Bank; London banker
Baron Edmund de Rothschild; plus
other notable commissioners and
chairmen of various U.N. and govern-
mental agencies.
The Findhorn Group of Loveland,
Colorado, was the host of the Con-
gress. This is a heavy "New Age"
group that refers to itself as "The
Emissaries."
How will this WCB scheme work
exactly? It will be enacted by the
United Nations but will need to be ap-
proved by every country participating.
Governments around the world
will give title to their wilderness lands
THE
WORLD
How this will all work is not quite
certain, but rest assured, the smart
guys have it figured out. James Baker,
who gave the keynote address, said
that conservation requires "growth and
development."
For instance, there could be
CONJSE1(\TAITOiNJ a gradual loanswap for taking it out of its old loans and
BANK
Is the WCB proposal a grand
plan to preserve the world 's
environment or the biggest
land grab in history?
by Mervyn Erb
to the World Wilderness Land Inven-
tory Trust. This trust will then be
floated into the WCB by the unani-
mous decree of the world's ecological
movement, supposedly to preserve and
protect reindeer, rainforests, and the
ozone layer.
This trust will be vested with title
to 12 1/2 billion acres, which is 30 per
cent of the world's land surface. Be-
cause this asset is worth trillions of
dollars, the WCB will have the power
to act as a world central bank and
create an international soft currency or
a one -world "fiat" currency (fiat
meaning issued by decree or author-
ity). Possibly these currencies could
be spent outside of a country for envir-
onmental and ecological equipment.
putting it into a new WCB loan,
which would certainly sweeten the
present slow loan on Chase
Manhattan's balance sheet. Or it
could just pay it off.
But what will really happen is that
the Brazilians will give up title to
millions of acres of land and, in ex-
change, the Chase Manhattan will
have its loan to Brazil paid off by the
WCB.
Here's how the "Fact Sheet: World
Conservation Bank" published by the
Secretariat of the Fourth World
Wilderness Congress outlines the
proposed scheme:
"The World Conservation Bank
would finance, directly and through
syndicated and co financing arrange-
ments:
• the preparation, development,
and implementation of national
conservation strategies by developing
country governments;
• the acquisition/lease of environ-
mentally important land for preserva-
tion of biological diversity and water-
sheds;
• the management and
conservation of selected areas.
And plans for the WCB propose
that it act as intermediary between
certain developing countries and
multilateral or private banks to
transfer a specific debt to the WCB,
thus substituting an existing 'doubtful'
debt in the bank' s books for a new
loan to the WCB. In return for having
been relieved of its debt obligation,
the debtor country would transfer to
the WCB natural resource assets of
'equivalent value.' Or, developing
country debts under foreign assistance
programs, which have little hope of
repayment, could be retained in -
country and applied toward conser-
vation, reforestation, or rural agri-
cultural programs through the WCB."
This in effect bails the banks out of
their bad loans to the lesser developed
32 THE RURAL VOICE