Recent Mott Foundation News -- Environment

Advocate stumps cross-country on behalf of public spaces

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:00:00 GMT

By ANN RICHARDS

Growing up in the shadow of a Texas oil rig drove Charles Jordan into a nearby woods where he spent many pleasurable hours getting to know the perimeters of the wild place that served as his only playground. It also drove him into a career as a parks director and life-long advocate of the benefits of open and green spaces, particularly for children growing up in urban or heavily industrial areas. Charles Jordan

"If it had not been for parks, I don't know where I'd be today," he said. "Through my conservation work, I try to encourage cities and municipalities to develop a parks strategy even if it requires a change in the way local nonprofits -- including government -- work together."

The first African-American to chair the Board of The Conservation Fund, Jordan also serves on the board of the Land Trust Alliance, both long-time grantees of the Mott Foundation. Recently, he visited Flint, Michigan -- where the Foundation is headquartered -- at the invitation of the Flint River Corridor Alliance. He spoke about the importance of urban river and land restoration and management as well as advocated for "color-coordinated conservation" that is inclusive of people of all races, incomes and ages.

"What people don't understand, they don't value," he said of his efforts to bring the principles of land conservation and protection to under-represented communities. "It is important that no one is left out of this work -- that everyone is invited to share their ideas."

Segregation put parks out of Jordan's reach during his youth, further strengthening his resolve to encourage urban communities not only to create parks, but programs that serve nearby neighborhoods.

"Through parks and recreational programs, we build communities. Building communities means connecting people to their neighborhoods, to one another, and to the land," he said. "Once kids begin to understand that the parks belong to them, they're much less likely to destroy what is theirs -- and they're much more likely to notice a tree, a flower or a bird and understand they need to protect it."

There is no better place to introduce a child or young person to these concepts than in a park, he continued.

"Growing up, I had access to nature and an absence of fear -- things that kids today don't seem to have, even in the more affluent communities. We have to find ways -- whether its through the schools, the faith community or voluntary agencies -- to work together to develop outdoor programs for our children. We need our public and private agencies to demonstrate flexibility, to be willing to try new ideas, to quit competing with one another and work together to serve more kids."

Former director of parks for the cities of Portland, Oregon and Austin, Texas for more than 30 years, Jordan witnessed first-hand the civic and economic benefits that well-programmed parks and recreational areas contribute to urban areas. Drawing upon this experience, and using his position with The Conservation Fund as pulpit, he now takes this message to planning boards, park boards, environmental organizations and other non-profits across the country.

"The Conservation Fund's approach to protecting this country's significant landscapes and waterways blends both environmental and economic objectives, which makes sense to many of the communities I visit," he said, noting that he tries to craft a message that reaches beyond "the usual suspects."

"I try to focus on the centrality of open space, clean air and clean water to the entire community's quality of life."

It is his generation, says the 70-year-old Jordan, who formed the closest relationship with the land, and it is up to those who enjoyed the benefits of this relationship to introduce a new generation of children to it. Early experiences with nature start the lifelong habits of stewardship and appreciation of beautiful places, he said.

"The Conservation Fund has protected millions of acres of public land," Jordan said. "It is important that future generations understand how rich they are, that they value the land they will inherit.

"They need to understand that their actions today will dictate what will happen in the future."

Additional Information and Links

• The Mott Foundation has provided more than $7.7 million in support of The Conservation Fund's Great Lakes Revolving Loan Fund, which provides short-term financing for the protection of ecologically significant freshwater sites in the U.S. portion of the Great Lakes basin. Since its 2001 inception, the fund has helped protect about 20,000 acres valued at nearly $56 million. To learn more about the work of The Conservation Fund visit http://www.conservationfund.org/.

• The Land Trust Alliance (LTA), a national provider of technical assistance to land trusts, has received more than $3 million from the Mott Foundation since 2001 to build the capacity of land trusts in the Great Lakes region as well as the southeastern United States. For further information on LTA, see the April 2006 edition of Mott Mosaic.

Climate change and water use patterns demand better management of Great Lakes

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 10:49:28 GMT

By ANN RICHARDS

Climate change, overuse and diversion pose grave threats to Great Lakes water resources, according to a new report issued by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). Global warming, which increases evaporation rates, is contributing to lower lake levels. As surface water levels decline in and outside the Great Lakes basin, pressure will build to increase water withdrawals and diversions.

Mission Hill Peninsula, MI
Photo: Adam Theriault

That "one-two punch" demands an evermore vigorous and focused effort to manage and protect a resource that millions of people in the U.S. and Canada depend on for their economy and way of life, according to Noah Hall, an environmental law professor at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit.

In collaboration with Bret Stuntz, a Michigan attorney and geologist, Hall has written Climate Change and Great Lakes Water Resources. The 44-page report, funded by the C.S. Mott Foundation, examines the potential impacts of rising temperatures and reduced precipitation on the lakes. It also explores ways in which surrounding states can help adaptively manage these water resources to preserve them.

"The report illustrates how the Great Lakes region can become a leader in managing and protecting our water resources and to set an example for the rest of the country," said Molly Flanagan, water program manager for the NWF's Great Lakes office.

Current laws and policies intended to protect water resources from diversions outside the Great Lakes basin and overuse from within the basin are not up to the new challenges posed by climate change, according to Hall and Stuntz.

"We have known for many years that existing laws are inadequate to protect the Great Lakes from diversions and overuse," Hall said. "Now we know that climate change is certain to put additional stress and pressure on the Great Lakes."

"We have known for many years that existing laws are inadequate to protect the Great Lakes from diversions and overuse."

In 2005, the governors of the eight states surrounding the Great Lakes proposed a set of specific guidelines for regulating the withdrawal and use of water from the basin. Known formally as the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact, the "compact" would be a binding agreement among the eight states surrounding the Great Lakes. Under the terms of the compact, the states will agree collectively to abide by a basinwide environmental standard for water uses. And each will develop a program to manage withdrawals as well as water conservation and efficiency programs to reduce waste by all users. A companion agreement that includes Ontario and Quebec provinces establishes similar expectations for Canadians.

The legislatures of the eight Great Lakes must ratify the compact to enact its provisions, said Flanagan. Once this has been accomplished, the U.S. Congress also will be asked for its approval, at which point it will become federal law. To date, Minnesota and Illinois have adopted the compact. Legislation is moving forward in New York, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

"This report is a wake-up call," said Stuntz, noting that as the Great Lakes and other regions struggle with loss of water supplies, demand for water is expected to increase unless water conservation laws and policies are adopted.

Since 2000, as part of its environmental work related to the Great Lakes, the Mott Foundation has made 23 grants totaling nearly $3 million to support research, build relationships among water uses and increase public participation in policy discussions related to the compact.

Additional Link

"Compact seeks to protect Great Lakes," Mott Mosaic, Vol. 5, No. 3, December 2006

Climate change – the missing piece

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 09:42:14 GMT

[NOTE: This column appears in the December 2007 issue of Alliance magazine and is used with their permission.]

By WILLIAM S. WHITE

President, C.S. Mott Foundation

Congratulations are in order for highlighting the timely topic of climate change in the September 2007 issue of Alliance. However, when climate change and the actions needed to address it are discussed, we sometimes fail to recognize a critical leverage point – the public and private financing that fuels international development, especially international investments in the energy sector and in infrastructure projects.

William S. White

Charles Stewart Mott Foundation grantees are working in more than 20 countries, across six continents, to educate decisionmakers at public and private financial institutions about the impacts of their investment choices and to help communities speak out in favour of sustainable alternatives. Their work is critical to our planet's climate future – and I would urge other private foundations to consider funding in this area.

As the world economy grows and becomes ever more interconnected, pressure increases to find new sources of oil and gas and to expand access to those resources. There is a corresponding demand for new infrastructure that will allow goods and resources to be moved from source to market. The investment decisions that countries are making about infrastructure and energy resources will have ramifications for at least 50 years and are likely to impact permanently vulnerable ecosystems.

Tropical forests are particularly at risk. The Amazon and other intact rainforests in Africa and Asia play a vital role in maintaining the integrity of the earth's climate. According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for its work in this field, current deforestation and land-use practices contribute 20-25 per cent of the carbon emissions that cause climate change.

The construction of roads, pipelines and processing facilities associated with oil and gas extraction opens these intact forests to logging and settlement, with extensive deforestation the likely result. Deforestation also advances when forests are converted for agricultural production, including growing crops for biofuel production. Thus, an alternative fuel source promoted as part of the climate change solution could exacerbate the problem.

It is possible to influence investment decisions by injecting a sustainable development perspective into the process. Large-scale energy and infrastructure projects in emerging economies are often funded by a mix of sources, including the World Bank Group, export credit agencies (ECAs) and/or private banks.

Environmental and social safeguard policies at public international financial institutions (IFIs) provide an entry point for influencing the design and implementation of projects they support. Non-profits in Asia, Europe, North America, South America and elsewhere are not only monitoring application of these safeguard policies but also working to shift the IFIs’ portfolios into an expanded investment in alternative energy.

The IFIs should be partners in mitigating the impacts of climate change and avoiding further damage. Unfortunately, recent trends in their investments are worrisome, reflecting renewed interest in extractive industries, large-scale dams, and oil and gas pipeline projects. There is a continued need to shine a light on the investment decisions of the World Bank, other multilateral banks and ECAs, urging those institutions to forge a more climate-friendly energy path.

Private financial institutions can contribute to climate change solutions as well. The Mott Foundation applauds Citigroup and other private banks that have adopted the Equator Principles – voluntary guidelines that influence their management of social and environmental issues in project financing. These banks have shown leadership by signing on to a shared set of sustainability principles. But civil society and local communities must remain vigilant to ensure that these principles are translated into lending practices that promote economic growth, environmental protection and human well-being.

In coming years, the leadership of international public and private financial institutions will become even more vital in addressing climate change. As was noted in the Alliance special feature, Brazil, India and China are critical for any real solutions to climate change. They, as well as other developing countries, must have access to international finance that allows them to make good energy choices for the future.

Proposal would pay Ecuador to keep oil in the ground

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

By MAGGIE I. JARUZEL

High-level discussions about ways for international financing institutions (IFIs) to address global climate change are entering a new era – one in which nations could be paid for not drilling for oil in environmentally sensitive regions.

“This initiative is so exciting because it comes from a developing country’s government that wants to protect its biodiversity and take on the issue of climate change,” said Jonathan Sohn, senior associate for World Resources Institute (WRI), a Washington, D.C.-based environmental research organization.

The endangered trees of the Yasuni Rainforest.“So often, the pressures facing developing countries force them to make decisions that do not protect these sensitive areas.”

The Ecuadorian government should be regarded as a “bold leader” for putting forth such a proposal, Sohn said, because the plan provides an innovative way to protect the Yasuni Rainforest, located in the Amazon basin, and its indigenous people while simultaneously avoiding carbon emissions by keeping approximately one billion barrels of oil off the global market.

However, he cautioned that every step taken to bring the Yasuni proposal to fruition needs to be taken carefully and correctly so the plan can be used as an international model and replicated.

With support from a Mott Foundation grant, WRI and the U.S. Embassy in Ecuador co-hosted a meeting in mid-September with public and private international finance and development experts, venture capitalists, and others to discuss financing options for the Yasuni proposal.

To date, the governments of Italy and Spain have expressed interest in possibly providing debt relief to Ecuador in exchange for not extracting oil from the Amazon basin, Sohn said.

WRI, one of several Mott grantees receiving support under the Environment program’s International Finance for Sustainability focus, is working with international leaders in hopes of shifting the global focus so natural resources left in the ground are considered just as valuable as those that are extracted.

Another grantee, Amazon Watch, helped develop the Yasuni proposal by providing advice and technical support to Ecuador’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa presented the proposal to international leaders at the U.N. General Assembly’s meeting on climate change at U.N. headquarters in New York City in September 2007. To date, that was the largest gathering of world leaders to discuss the topic, says Atossa Soltani, Amazon Watch’s executive director.

With support from Mott and the Wallace Global Fund, the Ecuadorian government is hosting a workshop November 26-30 in Ecuador as a follow-up to the D.C. event. The goal is to determine the next steps to take toward financing and implementing the proposal, including developing ways for the Ecuadorian government to invest in a sustainable economic development strategy with resources raised from this initiative, Soltani said.

“We need to start weaning ourselves off foreign oil, and this proposal helps us think in that direction.”

Following that meeting, world leaders will gather again on the Indonesian island of Bali in December for the 13th U.N. Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP 13).

Because Ecuador would forego an estimated $9.2 billion in oil revenues, the government is seeking compensation from nations, foundations, corporations, nonprofit groups, and individuals for half, or $4.6 billion total. Backers of the proposal are trying to raise $360 million to meet the first year’s payout.

Solanti said it is feasible to raise between $3.5 billion and $4.6 billion from people around the planet because so many people are affected by what happens in the region.

“When we look globally at the role of the Amazon Rainforest, we see that it literally drives the weather around the world. It affects rainfall from California to the agricultural belt in Iowa,” she said.

“This proposal is not only protecting an important rainforest, but also recognizing and addressing climate change. In my 11 years of doing this kind of work, this is the first time I’ve seen such a progressive proposal from a government.”

Although the Yasuni oil represents 20 percent of the nation’s total known oil reserves, Soltani said, there has been broad support for the proposal from Ecuadorian citizens.

The proposal also has received support from people elsewhere because it addresses climate change in two ways, said Sohn of WRI.

First, keeping the oil in the ground would reduce deforestation in the Yasuni Rainforest because trees would not be cut down to make roads to reach the oil reserves. Second, there would be less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere if the nearly one billion barrels of oil were not drilled and used as fuel, he said.

“We need to start weaning ourselves off foreign oil, and this proposal helps us think in that direction.”

Additional Links

View WRI’s media release about the Yasuni proposal.
View a media release from the government of Ecuador.
View an announcement about the Energy and Climate Change Commitment for the Ecuador proposal from the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI).
View a video of the CGI award presentation to the President of Ecuador.
View an Amazon Watch video clip about the Amazon Rainforest narrated by actor Martin Sheen.

Encouraging landowners to save the places they love

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 12:00:00 GMT

By ANN RICHARDS

The clock is ticking for landowners who want to take advantage of generous federal tax incentives encouraging conservation easement donations.

“I’ve never been busier,” said Stephen J. Small, a Boston-based attorney who is considered one of the nation’s leading authority on private land protection options and strategies.

Steven J. Small

At the University of Michigan-Flint recently, Small was the featured speaker for a six-city Webinar to inform tax and real estate attorneys, appraisers, and financial advisers about the expanded federal tax incentive for conservation easement donations, which is set to expire at the end of 2007. He also is the author of Preserving Family Lands I, II and III, which have sold more than 125,000 copies since the late 1980s.

“If anyone on the planet can make tax law interesting, it’s Stephen,” said Erin Heskett, director of the Land Trust Alliance (LTA) Midwest office.

Since 2000, the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit has been granted more than $1.6 million from the Mott Foundation to build the capacity and effectiveness of land trusts operating in the Great Lakes basin. Recently, LTA also received a multi-year, $800,000 grant to launch a national land trust accreditation program. (See box.) LTA, along with the Lake Huron Alliance and the Center for Applied and Environmental Research at UM-Flint, sponsored the Webinar.

Small’s enthusiasm for tax law began more than 20 years ago, during night classes at Georgetown University Law Center, where he authored a paper on the intersection of the tax code and historic preservation easements.

“There was no literature on the topic -- no one understood it,” he said. “The more I looked for information, the more I became intrigued by the idea of using an old property law tool to accomplish social good.”

After going to work for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service in the 1980s, Small had the opportunity to write the regulations for conservation easements.

“Call it serendipity, call it karma -- but among the 10 or so projects nobody wanted to deal with at the IRS was conservation easement law, and it landed on my desk,” he said.

Today, more than 37 million acres of land in the U.S. are protected through easements, and there are 1,667 land trusts -- most of which have sprung up in the past two decades. Much of this explosive growth is due to the income tax deductions available for gifts of conservation easements, first included in the Tax Reform Act of 1976 and then made permanent in Tax Treatment Extension Act of 1980.

Under a conservation easement, a landowner voluntarily agrees to restrict certain rights associated with his or her property. Such easements protect land for future generations while allowing owners to retain many private property rights, including living on and using their land while receiving an income tax deduction for the value they give up.

Under the prior income tax rules, an individual could deduct the value of a conservation easement donation generally up to 30 percent of the donor’s adjusted gross income for the year, with a five-year carry-forward of any unused amount. Likewise, up to 10 percent of a corporation’s taxable income could be deducted for the year in which a conservation easement was donated, again with a five-year carry-forward. For conservation easement gifts made in 2006 and 2007, however, the tax incentives are considerably more generous.

First, says Small, the value of an easement donation can be deducted up to 50 percent of an individual’s adjusted gross income for the year of the gift, with a 15-year carry-forward of any unused deduction amount.

For a qualifying farmer or rancher -- which includes both individuals and corporations -- the deduction can be greater. In certain cases, says Small, 100 percent of the donor’s taxable income in the year the gift is given can be deducted, with a 15-year carry-forward.

“This is a tool for people who love their land and don’t want to see it paved over,” Small said. “When you donate an easement, you’re giving up value. If done properly, it’s real philanthropy -- tax deductions can never mathematically replace the full dollar value of your land.”

Although many millions of acres of land have been protected over the past 20 years, conservation easements are complicated because each is unique, he said.

“One of the biggest problems in the field today is lack of capacity. A major impediment to easement donations is the client's lawyer who doesn’t understand the regulations. The professional planning community is way behind.”

Small’s seminars are designed to correct this deficit.

“The work is getting more complicated. Although a lot of the land trusts in this country are run by intelligent, sophisticated people, there are a number who have not done their homework.

“Giving away land is easy -- you just sign a deed. If you want to donate a conservation easement, you need to be sure who will be enforcing and monitoring the agreed restrictions in perpetuity. Structuring easements requires lots of due diligence and legal work.”

Another challenge is the grassroots nature of land trusts, Small said.

“In this work, you can’t sit back and wait for people to come to you. The word isn’t out to all the landowners who need to know about conservation easements.

“Land trusts need to take on the responsibility of outreach. Land trusts need to increase their visibility by bringing in speakers, offering programs and technical assistance.”

Small also is a proponent of accreditation.

“The field is enormously challenging because it is so new. Land trusts need to understand their responsibilities once they hold an easement. They need to build their ability to do the deal.

“That’s why I do a lot of speaking. I talk about the tax code, not flora and fauna.”

Thanks to the current incentive for private land protection, there’s been a significant increase in donations, he said.

“There’s a chance that these incentives will be extended beyond 2007. But to take advantage of this opportunity, people need to be in touch with their local land trusts now. It’s the time to be creative, not constrained, if you’re passionate about protecting your land.”

Mott funds national land trust training and education

Intense public scrutiny over the past two years -- including media criticism, Congressional hearings, and federal audits of individual land trusts -- has focused a bright light on the need for a uniform level of competency and integrity throughout the land trust sector.

In response to this criticism, the Land Trust Alliance (LTA) recently launched a voluntary accreditation program, which provides independent certification that land trusts are adhering to standards and practices put into place by the alliance in 2005. These Land Trust Standards and Practices -- the universally accepted standard for land trust quality -- now are a condition of LTA membership.

To help land trusts prepare for accreditation as well as to establish the commission that will oversee the review process, the Mott Foundation made a multi-year, $800,000 grant to provide training and other capacity-building activities.

The accreditation program will support the assessment of 400 land trusts and provide more than 300 training sessions for 14,000 land trust professionals and volunteers. It also will help establish the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent entity that will conduct organizational reviews.

Founded in 1982, LTA serves as the umbrella organization representing more than 1,600 land trusts across the nation, promoting voluntary land conservation and working to strengthen the land trust movement.

Hydropower relicensing: a tool for conservation

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT

By CHRISTINA K. MOONEY

During the past two decades, many hydropower facilities in the Great Lakes basin came up for relicensing before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Because licenses are valid for up to 50 years, this represented an opportunity to bring these facilities up to current environmental standards.

With Mott Foundation support, organizations such as New York Rivers United (NYRU), American Rivers and others were able to address significant environmental issues during relicensing. And in the process, they achieved much more.

“These groups helped pioneer a more collaborative, multi-stakeholder process in developing operating licenses for hydropower dams,” said Sam Passmore, Mott program officer for the Environment program.

"The relicensing process has led communities, agencies, tribes and other constituents to develop a much broader respect for the operations of an entire watershed.

“FERC is now using that process as the standard in licensing across the country, including the Southeast, where Mott now also funds," Passmore added. "That, coupled with the fact that a whole generation of dams in the Great Lakes are now operating with modern licenses that take environmental issues into account, are the most important legacies of this grantmaking.”

Mott begain its hydropower grantmaking in 1992, and since that time has provided more than $4 million to groups working in both the Great Lakes and Southeast.

Bruce Carpenter, NYRU executive director, has been closely involved with many dam relicensings in New York state.

“Initially, relicensing was very adversarial,” he said. “The relicensing process has led communities, agencies, tribes and other constituents to develop a much broader respect for the operations of an entire watershed."

But as all parties, from government officials to citizens to non-governmental organizations to the power companies came together, it became clear to everyone that a collaborative course was beneficial to all involved, Carpenter said.

New York recently completed the last major relicensing for some time in the Great Lakes basin with the Niagara Power Project, just downstream from Niagara Falls. Although this was one of the largest, most complex processes to date, the relicensing was completed in a timely fashion, thanks to experience gained from earlier projects.

“The power company took its time and everyone had a voice,” Carpenter said. “In the end, the improvements to the project and the mitigation enhancement were tremendous, and they will last for the next 50 years.”

Robbin Marks, American Rivers senior director, has seen similar progress across the country.

“The process is different now than when we started,” she said. “A lot of important precedents with public participation and environmental protection have been established. We have also been able to use this very complex process of hydropower relicensing as a river restoration tool, and that is significant.”

The long-lasting benefits can include restored fisheries, improved recreation, better water quality and restoration of rivers as a community asset.

In New York, those collaborative efforts have had a positive ripple effect, impacting not only rivers, but entire watersheds as well, Carpenter said.

“The dams have now become one point in what has become a much larger focus. In my opinion, this has been one of the most successful environmental restoration efforts to date,” he said.

LIVE EARTH concerts put spotlight on Amazon Watch project

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT

By Maggie I. Jaruzel

The work of Amazon Watch, a California-based Mott grantee, was highlighted during the recently televised global LIVE EARTH concerts. A 60-second Public Service Announcement (PSA), narrated by actor Martin Sheen, described efforts to protect Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest.

The PSA aired several times, generating broad interest in the international campaign to save Yasuni National Park, one of the most bio-diverse ecosystems on the planet, said Atossa Soltani, executive director of Amazon Watch, an international nongovernmental organization that supports the efforts of indigenous communities to protect the Amazon environment.

"The public response so far has been impressive. We have received hundreds of emails from peopl eager to take action to protect the Amazon. It's been incredible exposure for the Amazon issue," Soltani said.

Mott's Environment program, through its International Finance for Sustainability focus area, promotes environmentally sustainable development and supports greater public participation in the economic decisionmaking process of international financial institutions (IFIs). Since 1999, the Foundation has made five grants totaling $808,333, to Amazon Watch to support its IFI programs.

Amazon Watch’s short televised clip highlights a plan by Ecuador President Rafael Correa to avoid drilling in Yasuni National Park. He has proposed keeping the country’s oil in the ground in exchange for financial commitments from the international community to offset the lost oil revenues, estimated to range from $2 billion to $3.5 billion.

If those funds are secured, the government has pledged to invest the money in sustainable social development programs for people living in the rainforest because their lives have already been negatively impacted by previous oil projects in the region.

According to Soltani, in addition to creating health and social problems for people, oil drilling causes serious environmental damage. For example, drilling is not possible without tremendous deforestation. Globally, tropical deforestation is responsible for between 20 percent and 25 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions.

Halting deforestation in the Amazon rainforest would be a key component of any plan to tackle global warming, Soltani said, adding that the Amazon rainforest plays a critical role in regulating global climate.

“The Amazon rainforest helps to create rain clouds that water farmers’ fields from Argentina to Iowa and helps power the trans-oceanic air currents. The livelihoods of millions of people are dependent upon those currents.”

NGO works to reform energy-related lending

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

By MAGGIE I. JARUZEL

While most people see an increasingly dark scenario as oil prices keep climbing, Graham Saul sees something else.

“This is a huge economic opportunity, not an economic problem,” he said. “It’s a chance for oil companies to diversify; to move away from their sole dependence on oil and become energy companies,” said Saul, who cites ever-increasing energy needs as one of two critical global sustainable development challenges. The other is climate change.

The two issues are related because billions of U.S. taxpayers’ dollars are earmarked for oil and gas projects in developing countries, adding to greenhouse gas pollution and making climate change problems worse without alleviating poverty.

Graham Saul of Oil Change International

(Photo by Alexandra Boak Kelly)

Saul is the international program director of Oil Change International (OCI), a research and advocacy nongovernmental organization (NGO) based in Washington, D.C. The organization is a Mott grantee, and was one of several sponsors of the recent conference called Climate Change and International Development.

Those attending the all-day D.C. event met to discuss the impact of climate change for the world’s poorest countries and also to promote strategies to help meet their energy needs without increasing their dependency upon oil.

In 2006, the Foundation made a two-year, $150,000 grant to OCI to support its international program.

OCI focuses on reforming the energy-related lending practices of IFIs, especially for multi-million dollar infrastructure projects in developing countries. Instead of funding projects that create complete dependence upon oil and gas, it is wiser for IFIs to back initiatives that promote using a variety of energy sources, Saul said.

For example, solar technology could be used in several circumstances. The sun’s power could be tapped to operate refrigerators to chill a rural village’s much-needed medicine, and charge lamps for the world’s 1.6 billion people without electricity. By using solar energy, they would have lights at night so students could study and businesses could remain open longer.

Currently, in several remote locations around the globe, wind and hydro-power also are providing communities with energy because traditional power grids are unavailable. Still, international financial support is usually earmarked for fossil fuels development, such as oil and gas projects, which are non-renewable energy sources, Saul said.

“They (IFIs) have got to stop using scarce foreign development dollars to subsidize oil companies.”

“This is a huge economic opportunity, not an economic problem. It’s a chance for oil companies to diversify; to move away from their sole dependence on oil and become energy companies."

Large international infrastructure projects in developing countries are often funded by IFIs, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, key private banks, and Export Credit Agencies (ECAs). The latter are institutions that serve as finance companies for private domestic corporations conducting business abroad. ECAs provide government-backed loans, guarantees and insurance to private developers.

Saul is quick to say that OCI is not opposed to development. Rather, the NGO works to ensure that projects balance economic growth, environmental protection, and human well-being.

“We are supportive of energy projects that are sustainable and beneficial for the poorest of the poor,” Saul said, adding that by subsidizing fossil fuels the IFIs are working at “cross purposes.”

He explained the funding contradiction: On the one hand, the goal of IFI-funded projects is to improve the standard of living for people in developing countries. But on the other hand, experience has shown that oil and gas extraction projects funded by IFIs make life worse – not better – for the residents they are supposed to help.

Most outsiders falsely assume that wealth generated from oil extraction within a nation translates to a better standard-of-living for its residents, but just the opposite has proven to be true in developing countries.

“It’s called the ‘resource curse.’ Those Sub-Sahara African countries that don’t have oil have grown faster than those that do – and they also have less poverty than the countries with oil,” Saul said.

“Look at Nigeria. It has been getting poorer and more polluted since they discovered oil.”

In addition, he cited studies that show oil-producing countries experience higher incidences of civil war, more repressive governments and greater amounts of corruption.

In the Niger Delta, where Nigerian residents are dependent upon the waterways for their livelihood and also transportation, it is common to see oil slicks and gas flares, Saul said. There are similar environmental concerns along portions of the Amazon River in South American countries, where the local people also are dependent upon the waterways.

“It would be less expensive to take action now by shifting the IFI portfolios away from oil and toward energy sustainability than to deal with consequences later,” Saul said, adding that most major IFIs are struggling with the effects of their past support of fossil fuel projects.

Consequently, OCI often serves as a bridge by bringing diverse interested parties – residents, policymakers, oil and gas industry professionals, financial backers, NGOs, and governmental officials – to the same table to share information and concerns about IFI-funded oil and gas projects, and to discuss alternative energy projects.

OCI also conducts and shares research, and generates public awareness about the benefits of environmentally and socially sustainable energy projects.

Often, OCI partners with groups that have overlapping interests, including those working to address common issues in developing countries such as reducing national debt, global poverty and environmental degradation.

“Where are the poor currently getting their energy from? In many places, the trees are being chopped down by a population of people who have no alternatives. They are dependant upon wood for cooking and heating. The IFIs need to fund alternative energy sources.”

U.S., Eastern Europe share ideas on urban regeneration

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

By ANN RICHARDS

The legacies of communism and capitalism are strikingly similar in older, industrial cities in the U.S. and Eastern Europe. The Environmental Partnership for Sustainable Development (EPSD) believes that cross-national conversations might generate mutually beneficial solutions that will lead to more livable, sustainable urban communities.

"We are committed to engaging the world around us -- our neighbors both in the EU and outside of it -- as well as promoting this trans-Atlantic dialogue,” said David Murphy from his office in the Czech Republic. "We want to share our story, our know-how, everything that we've learned from our long transition from closed to open societies, from totalitarianism to democracies, and from planned economies to capitalism."

Murphy, EPSD's regional coordinator, was one of three staff members to visit the U.S. in November. He and his co-workers believe that one of the main benefits of the trip was affirmation that EPSD's work is relevant and important to people in the U.S. That, in turn, has helped to define more clearly the partnership's purpose and role in the future.

"During the trip, we realized that we would be meeting with people and organizations -- like the Mott Foundation -- who know us and have a history with us, a funding history. Along with that comes a preconceived notion of who we are. So the challenge was to show those who know us that we have grown as an organization. We want to surprise them and say, ‘You knew us as a grantee, but now we are coming back as a partner with whom you can work to tackle bigger, even global issues.’"

One of the goals of EPSD's trip was to create an international network to share ideas about community building.

"We believe that in order to tackle global issues, our part of the world -- Central Europe -- has to stand up and play its role,” Murphy said. “We can be a part of this by doing what we do best: ensuring that the voices of the grassroots are also heard."The Environmental Partnership for Sustainable Development (EPSD) is a consortium of six foundations in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Using a flexible mixture of small grants, technical assistance, networking and training activities, as well as special programs, EPSD focuses on mobilizing and empowering people to build civil societies and sustainable communities in Central and Eastern Europe. Since its establishment in 1991, EPSD foundations have invested more than $16 million in support of more than 5,000 individual projects.

Said Miroslav Kundrata, chair of EPSD's board of directors and director of the Czech Republic's Environmental Partnership Foundation: "Good ideas are not shared enough."

"One of the most remarkable things about our trip to the U.S. has been that no matter where we were -- Oregon, California, New York or Michigan -- people spoke the same language. They talked about the same things we talk about: urban sprawl, traffic, unregulated construction."

Made up of six independent member foundations representing Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Romania, EPSD is headquartered in the Czech Republic. It was founded shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 through the German Marshall Fund of the United States. EPSD has been at the forefront of reconnecting citizens with their cultural and environmental heritage in post-communist Eastern Europe.

After visiting cities as diverse as Portland (Oregon) and New York City, Murphy, Kundrata and Laszlo Potozky, director of the Romanian Environmental Partnership Foundation, ended their three-week tour in Flint, home to the Mott Foundation.

In many ways, the acres of empty parking lots and abandoned factories in Flint felt the most like home to Kundrata and Potozky. Flint's post-industrial scars are very similar to those inflicted by 50 years of communism in Eastern Europe, they say.

"Flint is a cautionary tale for us," Potozky said. "Our new, market-driven system poses many problems for the regeneration of our cities. We are very, very vulnerable right now. Everyone wants to make money, to buy a car. We can learn a lot about how we should grow by talking with people in Flint -- people who are trying to transform their economy."

Said Kundrata: "Our visit to Flint has been the most relevant of all our stops in the United States. We are struggling with problems similar to Flint's -- even if the root of those problems are not the same."

The trip also provided an opportunity to update Mott on the partnership's accomplishments. Since 1991, Mott has provided more than $3.4 million to support the growth and expansion of EPSD's community-based activities.

The partnership employs 130 people in eight offices across Eastern Europe. During the past 15 years, EPSD has supported more than 5,500 initiatives to protect 160 endangered species of flora and fauna; plant more than 225,000 trees; insulate 800 homes, schools and public buildings; create more than 4,500 kilometers of "greenways" or bicycle paths to encourage natural and cultural heritage conservation and revitalization of public spaces at the national and regional levels; and mobilize more than 21,500 volunteers. The partnership has been instrumental in creating more than 500 not-for-profit organizations in Central/Eastern Europe.

Building on its experience providing small grants and technical support for local environmental action, the partnership began to address the issue of urban revitalization in the mid-1990s, working with local communities on improving their public squares, streets and parks.

In 1993, EPSD partnered with the U.S.-based Project for Public Spaces to create a national "placemaking" program that required resident participation in planning. The program was designed to address two central needs -- developing and improving urban communities and continuing to create a public voice and encourage participation in public affairs.

At first, the challenge seemed overwhelming, according to Kundrata. Totalitarian rule and state planning has left many Eastern European cities burdened with the remnants of heavy industry -- brownfields, abandoned steel works, city centers paralyzed by ill-planned roads, canalized rivers and dehumanizing housing blocks.

"We are not experts in urban architecture or urban planning," Potozky said. "But we are expert at involving communities and starting conversations among people."

Like their ongoing work in rural communities and their signature "greenways" program, EPSD initiated community-building activities in larger cities through "petunia" projects -- inviting residents to plant trees or flowers in public spaces.

"As people become acquainted, we move to larger issues," Kundrata said.

Keeping people engaged is an ongoing struggle, say Potozky and Kundrata. Eastern Europe's growing consumer orientation has also worked against public involvement.

"But there is great potential," Kundrata said. "It is more a question of leadership."

Said Potozky: "Now is the time for organizations with this shared interest and concern to compare notes and address how to build citizen self-sufficiency.

"On this trip, we've seen a lot of enthusiasm about how people can make a difference. That is what will keep us moving forward."

“Hurricane on the Bayou”: audio and visual warnings

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 00:00:00 GMT

First it was a CD, next the filming of an IMAX movie and then the real disaster.

One year before hurricanes Katrina and Rita blasted Louisiana’s coastline in the late summer of 2005, the state’s musicians sent out a joint SOS -- “Save Our Swamps.” The CD showcases the talents of blues, rock, reggae, “swamp pop” and Cajun performers, all of whom earmarked profits from CD sales to Voice of the Wetlands (VOW).

Tab Benoit, a Louisiana bluesman and VOW’s founder, waxes poetic when talking about the state’s valuable wetlands.

“The bayou is a magical place where land and water live as one.”

His recording, “Fever for the Bayou,” is featured in “Hurricane on the Bayou,” an IMAX film currently showing at IMAX theaters around the nation.

Produced and distributed by MacGillivray Freedman Films and narrated by actress Meryl Streep, the movie takes viewers on a panoramic airboat ride through the vegetated bayou region, showcasing its beauty and fragility.

The film originally was called “Storm on the Bayou,” but the name was changed after hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit in the middle of production. The hurricanes provided a graphic opportunity for the filmmakers to document the vulnerability of coastline communities after wetlands vanish into open water.

In the film, the marshy waters and its banks abound with sights and sounds to stir the senses and the soul -- sunbathing alligators, smooth saxophonists, steamy Cajun cooking and graceful waterfowl in flight.

The documentary describes the wetlands loss in Louisiana’s Mississippi Delta region. Since the 1930s, more than 1.2 million acres of wetlands have vanished -- more than 100 square miles as a result of the two major hurricanes alone.

Benoit, a 2007 Grammy nominee and one of four New Orleans’ musicians in the movie, invites viewers into his bayou-based lifestyle.

“I always said I wished someone would come along to wake up the world about the wetlands. Be careful what you wish for,” Benoit says as the camera pans the destruction.

While sitting in the pilot’s seat of his personal floatplane, Benoit soars above vanishing marshes. He describes the need to plant mangroves, rebuild dwindling islands and redirect the Mississippi River’s sediment. While it will take lots of time and resources upfront to do what he suggests, the payback will come in the form of less-costly storm damage, Benoit says.

“Good stewardship of the wetlands is good economics, too.”