Dick Lugar: “I join with Senator Biden today to introduce legislation reauthorizing the Tropical Forest Conservation Act of 1998…”

“I join with Senator Biden today to introduce legislation reauthorizing the Tropical Forest Conservation Act of 1998 (TFCA) through fiscal year 2007. Since its creation, the TFCA has helped conserve 40 million acres of tropical forests in the world. The current TFCA authorization, P.L. 107-26, expires at the end of fiscal year 2004. The House of Representatives has already voted in favor of H.R. 4654, which is identical to the legislation we introduce today. We hope the Senate will be able to take speedy action on this important program. Senator Biden and I proposed TFCA in 1998 based on the 1991 Enterprise for Americas Initiative (EAI) that allows the President to restructure debt in exchange for conservation efforts in Latin America. The TFCA expanded on the EAI and allows protection of threatened tropical forests worldwide through 'debt-for-nature' mechanisms. With TFCA, the State Department has reached agreements generating $70.4 million in long-term commitments for tropical forest conservation. In addition, private donors, including the Nature Conservancy, the World Wildlife Fund, the Wildlife Conservation Society and Conservation International, have contributed more than $5 million to TFCA swaps, leveraging U.S. Government funds. Seven TFCA agreements have been concluded to date in Bangladesh, El Salvador, Belize, Peru, the Philippines, Panama and Colombia.”