Treasury Issues Standards Protecting Tropical Wetlands

On August 29th, Acting U.S. Treasury Secretary M. Peter McPherson issued standards to slow massive loss of tropical wetlands in the Third World. McPherson promulgated special voting instructions directing United States representatives of multilateral development banks- the World Bank and regional banks for Africa, Asia, and Latin America- to oppose projects that will destroy tropical wetlands. The standards, which were drafted by the Natural Resources Defense Council-sponsored Working Group on International Wetlands, contain strict criteria that development projects must meet before they receive support from the U.S. government.