16

amounts of forests, wildlife habitat and agricultural lands.3°

Livestock Project, Botswana Two livestock projects

designed to increase beef production for export have, according to many experts, led to serious overgrazing and increased

desertification.

Concerns have also been raised about

construction of fences in the path of wildebeest migration

routes.

4. In your view, is it necessary or appropriate to amend NEPA to extend the authorities to U.S. actions involving multilateral development loans in other countries? What do you believe the effect would be in terms of influencing the scope or direction of proposed projects? How would NEPA work in this situation?

I believe that the United States should implement a program to ensure that the MDBs themselves implement a strong environmental review process on proposed projects. This would not require an amendment to NEPA. Rather, I would support a program of technical assistance and training, including cooperatively prepared environmental impact analyses, with the goal of developing systematic procedures to ensure that environmental impact analysis is a central part of every loan proposal. I believe that such a program should include:

* establishment of an orderly, predictable process to
consider the environmental impacts of proposed
projects;

30 A report from the Agency for International Development states that environmental studies were initiated comparatively late in the planning process. "One result is that the examination of alternatives with fewer social/environmental impacts has been precluded". April, 1988.

17

* wider involvement of government agencies with

special expertise in environmental concerns, as well as

by interested members of the public sector;

a recognition of the interrelated, global nature of

environmental impacts;

* utilization of the "Goals and Principles of Environmental Impact Assessment" adopted last year by the United Nations Environment Programme Governing Council.

Used in a rational and efficient way, such a program would be one of the many tools, formulated by the executive branch, by Congress, and by many other interested groups, to address the significant concerns about environmental impacts of projects funded by the MDBs. If I make take the liberty of quoting the Secretary of the Treasury:

-

"What the Reagan Administration wants the World Bank and
the other development banks to do is to make environmental
analysis a central part of every loan proposal
systematically and routinely. We want the Bank to draw on
the expertise of trained environmental analysts
both on
its staff and outside consultants who know developing
countries and can assess just what impact any new project or
policy will have on the ecology of those countries.
It should then incorporate that analysis into its lending
decisions and assistance from the very beginning of the

-

HOW NEPA would work for U.S. actions involving multilateral development loans in other countries?

I believe that the environmental impact assessment process

is better handled in the framework of MDB loans to other

32.

Remarks by the Secretary of the Treasury, James A. Baker, III, at the Fourth World Wilderness Congress, Denver, Colorado, September 11, 1987.

18

countries by the type of program which I have suggested above; in other words, a cooperative program of assisting the MDBS to

develop their own environmental impact assessment programs rather than application of NEPA as implemented for domestic proposals.

usa Title 3

The President

APPENDIX "A"

THE PRESIDENT

1957

Executive Order 12114 of January 4, 1979

Environmental Effects Abroad of Major Federal Actions

By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, and as President of the United States, in order to further environmental objectives consistent with the foreign policy and national security policy of the United States, it is ordered as follows:

Section 1.

1-1. Purpose and Scope. The purpose of this Executive Order is to enable responsible officials of Federal agencies having ultimate responsibility for authorizing and approving actions encompassed by this Order to be informed of pertinent environmental considerations and to take such considerations into account, with other pertinent considerations of national policy, in making decisions regarding such actions. While based on independent authority, this Order furthers the purpose of the National Environmental Policy Act and the Marine Protection Research and Sanctuaries Act and the Deepwater Port Act consistent with the foreign policy and national security policy of the United States, and represents the United States government's exclusive and complete determination of the procedural and other actions to be taken by Federal agencies to further the purpose of the National Environmental Policy Act, with respect to the environment outside the United States. its territories and possessions.

Sec. 2.

2-1. Agency Procedures. Every Federal agency taking major Federal actions encompassed hereby and not exempted herefrom having significant effects on the environment outside the geographical borders of the United States and its territories and possessions shall within eight months after the effective date of this Order have in effect procedures to implement this Order. Agencies shall consult with the Department of State and the Council on Environmental Quality concerning such procedures prior to placing them in effect.

2-2. Information Exchange. To assist in effectuating the foregoing purpose, the Department of State and the Council on Environmental Quality in collaboration with other interested Federal agencies and other nations shall conduct a program for exchange on a continuing basis of information concerning the environment. The objectives of this program shall be to provide information for use by decisionmakers, to heighten awareness of and interest in environmental concerns and, as appropriate, to facilitate environmental cooperation with foreign nations.

2-3. Actions Included. Agencies in their procedures under Section 2-1 shall establish procedures by which their officers having ultimate responsibility for authorizing and approving actions in one of the following categories encompassed by this Order, take into consideration in making decisions concerning such actions, a document described in Section 2—4(a):

(a) major Federal actions significantly affecting the environment of the global commons outside the jurisdiction of any nation (e.g., the oceans or Antarctica); (b) major Federal actions significantly affecting the environment of a foreign nation not participating with the United States and not otherwise involved in the action;

(c) major Federal actions significantly affecting the environment of a foreign nation which provide to that nation:

DERAL REGISTER, VOL. 44, NO. 6—TUESDAY, JANJARY 9, 1979

(1) a product, or physical project producing a principal product or an emission or effluent which is prohibited or strictly regulated by Federal law in the United States because its toxic effects on the environment create a serious public health risk; or

(2) a physical project which in the United States is prohibited or strictly regulated by Federal law to protect the environment against radioactive

substances.

(d) major Federal actions outside the United States, its territories and posses sions which significantly affect natural or ecological resources of global importance designated for protection under this subsection by the President. or. In the case of such a resource protected by international agreement binding on the United States, by the Secretary of State. Recommendations to the President under this subsection shall be accompanied by the views of the Council on Environmental Quality and the Secretary of State.

24 Applicable Procedures. (a) There are the following types of documents to be used in connection with actions described in Section 2-3:

(i) environmental impact statements (including generic, program and specific statements):

(ii) bilateral or multilateral environmental studies, relevant or related to the proposed action, by the United States and one more foreign nations, or by an international body or organization in which the United States is a member or participant: or

(lii) concise reviews of the environmental issues involved, including environmental assessments, summary environmental analyses or other appropriate documents

(b) Agencies shall in their procedures provide for preparation of documents described in Section 2-4(a), with respect to actions described in Section 2-3. as follows:

(1) for effects described in Section 2-3(a), an environmental impact statement described in Section 2-4(a)(i):

(i) for effects described in Section 2-3(b), a document described in Section 24(a)(i) or (iii), as determined by the agency.

(hi) for effects described in Section 2-3(c), a document described in Section 2(a)(ii) or (iii), as determined by the agency.

(iv) for effects described in Section 2–3(d), a document described in Section 24(a)(i), (M) or (iii), as determined by the agency.

Buch procedures may provide that an agency need not prepare a new document when a document described in Section 2-4(a) already exists.

(c) Nothing in this Order shall serve to invalidate any existing regulations of any agency which have been adopted pursuant to court order or pursuant to judicial settlement of any case or to prevent any agency from providing in its procedures for measures in addition to those provided for herein to further the purpose of the National Environmental Policy Act and other environmental laws including the Marine Protection Research and Sanctuaries Act and the Deepwater Port Act, consistent with the foreign and national security policies

of the United States.

(d) Except as provided in Section 2-5(b), agencies taking action encompassed by this Order shall, as soon as feasible, inform other Federal agencies with