FILE COPY Report No. :11056 Type: (PUB) Title: THE WORLD BANK & THE WORLD Author: WORLD BANK Ext.: 0 Room: Dept.: OLI) PUBLICATION 1971 THIE WORLD BANK AND THE WORLD ENVIRONMENT 11056 World Bank Group September 1971 THE WORLD BANK AND THE WORLD ENVIRONMENT THE WORLD BANK AND THE WORLD ENVIRONMENT Change, a Way of Life Environmental problems are as old as mankind itself. They may have begun as long ago as the time when man, the tinkerer, first began to husband the energies of fire. Problems were surely encountered when man, the inspired tinkerer, began to give up his nomadic existence and settle down upon the land. Man has always, and in many ways, shaped his environment to suit better his purposes. Sometimes those man-carved shapes suited his purposes admirably: witness, for example, the civilizations of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, sustained for centuries by the ingenuity of man-made irrigation ditches serving irrigated fields. But sometimes those very shapings have, in the end, helped de- stroy man's intent: those Euphratean civilizations shrivelled when the same irrigation works became water-logged with brine. Witness, too, the ills of urbanization visited upon the ancient Greeks, who on many occasions, died from infestations of plague in their crowded cities. And the Romans, who by felling trees for crash programs of ship- building denuded their hills and thereby ended the utility of much of their land; the rennaissance Venetians, who lay bare the mountainous and forested shorelines of Greece for the same purpose; the people of 19th Century colonies, whose native agriculture was ruined by the creation of vast plantations, and whose handicraft industries became irresistibly irrelevant when factories began stripping the foreign soil of its mineral resources. Nor were the early 20th Century coal towns described by D. H. Lawrence places where one might give any but escapist thought to "the quality of life." Admittedly, environmental problems are today of more immediate concern than ever before, for those same problems are aggravated as man becomes ever more capable of producing instant, immediate, and irreversible changes in his life. And today, change is a way of life. Our "nostalgia span" is now measured in terms of decades rather than generations, and those of us alive in the year 2000 may yet sink into nostaligic reveries over the cultural and aesthetic styles of the year 1999. If environmental problems are not new to this century, awareness that they do, indeed, exist is new. Inimicable conditions of life are usually accepted fatalistically as long as there seems to be no way 3 to affect their surcease. But when methods to control the tolerable irritants of man's life become known, those irritants have a way of becoming, suddenly, intolerable. And when those irritants begin to threaten life itself, the problems are discovered to be of prime im- portance. This is the condition in which, in the second half of the Twentieth Century, man finds himself. The Great Pervasive Malignancy Environmental spoliation is one of the great pervasive malignancies of our time. It respects no boundaries; it erodes the position of the wealthy and the hopes of the poor. Though its symptoms may be diverse, its results are nearly always the same. In the more affluent societies, where capital formation and tech- nology are of major importance, environmental effects are primarily determined by the ways in which machines are used or abused. In poor societies, on the other hand, where people and natural re- sources are the primary factors of production, the environment is affected mostly by what people do to it and what occurs in the course of exploiting man's resources. Thus northern man succumbs to emphysema, southern man to schistosomiasis. A pulp paper mill is built along a river in a devel- oped country and a buyer of riverine fish is poisoned by eating his market-place purchase; seabord crops in the developing world are protected against disease by the application of pesticides, and the catcher of fish finds his maritime harvest floating on-rather than swimming in-the sea. But if environmental spoliation is pervasive, it is also true that its most serious effects are visited upon those who can least afford dis- ruptions to an already marginal existence. Soil laterization, reservoir siltation and urban horrors in the devel- ping world are profoundly more pathological than many environ- mental problems in the developed world, if only because there is, in the latter, more money and technical expertise available to deal with the situation. Nevertheless, the main concern of the developing nations must continue to be that of economic and social development. A problem that, in an affluent country might be labeled as an environmental crisis, may be considered in the Third World as one of the annoy- ance only. "Some of us would rather see smoke coming out of a factory and men employed than no factory at all," one Asian said recently. If a dam is desperately needed for irrigation purposes in an arrid and developing country, and if its construction will inevitably in- 4 crease the chances of an outbreak of debilitating snail fever, the terms of debate in the developing country over the dam's construc- tion must perforce differ from those in a richer state less in need of increased farmland. Every state has the right of sovereignty over its internal develop- ment, and it is difficult technically and virtually impossible, morally, for one country to question the assignment of domestic priorities by another. The outcries by ardent environmentalists against the inherent "ecological immorality" of development's by-products in their own countries, are regarded by many leaders of developing states as smokescreens behind which the rich will eventually attempt to justify either a reduced commitment to the economic development of the poor on the one hand, or heightened trade barriers against products produced in the "environmental sweatshops" of the poor on the other. Thus, in the case of the dam, benefits to tens of thousands of poor farmers must be weighed against the possible addition of misery to a few. Economic development cannot be achieved without some disrup- tion to man's environment. Economic development can, however, be carried out in a way that would minimize deleterious effects both upon the environment and upon the public health and welfare of mankind. The Joining of the Front Though awareness that the environment could not, with impunity, continue to be despoiled inched into man's consciousness, the sev- eral "eco-catastrophes" of recent years have suddenly unleashed a torrent of remedial measures designed to halt the environmental abuses of the past century. Developed countries today no longer feel that pollution must be the price paid for their affluence, and the developing world is now somewhat less convinced than before that they must face the Hob- son's choice between pollution and poverty. For a poor country, a multi-million dollar reservoir choked with water hyacinths is not development. For a poor country, a 140-mile laterite road is a sign of progress, but 140 miles square of laterite grazing land is a portent of doom. In 1970, the Report of Critical Environmental Problems, sponsored by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, warned that "perhaps joint or parallel action between the rich and the poor on the en- vironmental front cannot realistically be expected." If the front is not yet a common one, at least it is no longer de- ployed in two hostile, facing columns. 5 In June of 1972, in Stockholm, Sweden, representatives from 130 nations and several dozen international organizations are expected to attend the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment to discuss the problems faced by the "Spaceship Earth." During the 12 days of the conference, the participants will be asked to deal with the environmental implications on the problems of urbanization, the management of natural resources, and economic development, and to identify-as well as to devise methods to con- trol-widespread environmental hazards. Some international institutions have already begun to organize programs to protect the environment wherever and for whatever purpose it is threatened. One such institution is the World Bank Group. The World Bank and the World Environment The basic function of the World Bank Group-the World Bank, its "soft loan" affiliate, the International Development Association, and the International Finance Corporation, which supports the private sector-is to prepare and finance projects for economic development in the developing countries of the world. That purpose is paramount today; it will remain so for tomorrow. It is also the policy of the Bank Group that careful and studied atten- tion must be given, in the planning of its development projects, for the consequences to the environment and to the health and well- being of affected peoples. Though the Bank had, in the past, concerned itself with the en- vironmental effects of its developmental activities, no systematic procedure existed to identify and examine those effects. More im- portantly, methods to prevent and mitigate adverse environmental consequences had not been devised. Such an unsystematic approach is clearly inadequate today in light of the scientific data that has been unearthed in recent years about the specific and collective effects of unplanned development on environmental systems. In late 1970, the post of Environmental Advisor was created within the World Bank Group and was soon filled by James A. Lee, who, at the time of his appointment, was Director of Human Ecology in the Environmental Health Service of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Less than 48 hours after his appointment, Dr. Lee learned that an East African project, involving the construction of electrical power lines through a national game park, and within view of an important tourist lodge, was about to be submitted to the Bank's Board of Exec- utive Directors for final approval. 6 After hasty consultations with the government involved, the power lines were routed around the park; more surprisingly, it was found that the new and aesthetically more desirable route could be built and maintained at a cost less than originally planned. "That was an easy, simple one," Dr. Lee says, adding that "other problems cannot so easily be solved." The Bank Group's Environmental Advisor has described the work of his first months as involving, to a great extent, "eleventh-hour" deliberations. Bank Group projects are often years in the making, and each year hundreds of them emerge from what is called the "project pipeline." Every project that might possibly affect adversely the environment of a recipient country is now reviewed for its ecological implications by the Bank's Environmental Advisor. Many problems can be dis- posed of through a review by Bank staff in Washington. Others, not so easily solved, must be studied in the field with borrowers, either by professional members of the Bank, or with the help of consultants. Consultant services are important to the Bank, for the wide spec- trum of Bank Group projects precludes the in-house assembling of the variety of professional disciplines needed for thoughtful environ- mental evaluations. Recently, one of the Bank's members planned a large marine port to load ore brought by trains from inland mines. The port will ac- commodate huge tankers. Concerned about the harbor ecology, the Bank sent a multi-disciplinary team of consultants-an oceanog- rapher, a marine ecologist, a fisheries specialist and a shellfish expert -to study the possible environmental impact of the project. Neces- sary safeguards were considered, the recipient government agreed to make changes in the port plans, and the safeguards were in- corporated into the project. But the Bank cannot and does not expect to solve all the potential environmental problems that might find their way into its many activities. All the answers to the questions of the environment are not yet known; indeed, no one yet knows all the right questions. In addition, "eleventh-hour" solutions to "eleventh-hour" crises may at times be likened to the boy holding back the sea waters breaching the dike by the judicious use of a finger or two. And as indicated, a systemnatic and institutionalized process in the Bank of safeguarding the environment will not become entirely apparent for a few years. When that systematic process finally catches up with the "pipe- line" process, one major question will still remain: is there any fool- proof way to measure, again systematically, the long-term savings that may accrue from establishing environmental safeguards against the short-term benefits that would surely come from untrammeled economic growth? 7 The answer is "no," and any reliable answer may not be forth- coming to that question for years-if at all. The World Bank, like other institutions, must continue to grope about for the answers which, if they now come more surely than before, come less surely than they will in the future. As environmental considerations became a fixed part of Bank Group operations, guidelines and criteria were assembled against which to assess potential projects. The Bank's checklist, which now covers 12 different kinds of project possibilities, is now used in the evaluation of environmental effects of almost all Bank projects. The questions asked in the checklist are not meant to act as ob- stacles in the path of economic development; indeed, incorporating the questions at the beginning of the project cycle can act to speed up the Bank's operations. Inevitably, "eleventh-hour" considerations can and do sometimes delay action on projects. Incorporating and integrating environmental safeguards into a project from the begin- ning will mean only that one more criterion has been added to the many already included in project appraisals. The checklists are also important to the Bank Group's activities, for many staff members, few of whom have ecological expertise, are now able to ask the necessary and pertinent questions about en- vironmental implications from the beginning of their consideration of a project. If answers to the questions on the checklist indicate that environ- mental problems may occur, the Bank can and does seek outside ad- vice from experts. "The very fact that the Bank has an identifiable environmental locus has had a positive effect," Mr. Lee declares. He adds that "staff members now know that the Bank is serious in its intention to safeguard the health and the environment of its mem- ber countries. They now ask questions as a matter of course. They now call on conservation groups and environmental offices in recip- ient countries and seek opinions and answers to potential problems. They have become involved, and equally as important, environmental experts in our member countries are becoming more involved in Bank activities also." Asking The Questions The World Bank Group has assembled criteria to be used in evaluating the environment-related impact of a dozen different types of development projects. The criteria have been incorporated into the appraisals of projects involving the construction of dams, roads, irrigation systems, sew- erage works, airports, smelting, power and fertilizer plants; the devel- 8 opment of ports and harbors; the operations and logging activities of the pulp and paper industry; the development of petrochemical- based industries; and the exploitation of mineral deposits. Many of the questions in the checklist are applicable to but one activity (What noise impact can be expected from airplanes using the newly-constructed airport?) Other questions (Will new health problems occur?) are more ubiquitous (construction of dams, roads, irrigation systems, sewerage works, petrochemical plants, mining ac- tivities). Some of the environmental considerations given the various types of development projects are: Irrigation Systems: Will the changes in water patterns introduce disease-bearing organisms into previously unaffected areas? Will runoff water contain residues-such as pesticides and fertilizers- that contaminate downstream waters? Will there be sedimentation and erosion problems? What will be the ecological consequences of changes in land patterns and population distribution? Sewerage Projects: Is there a possibility that the sewerage system will contaminate drinking water? Will gases, odors, insects, and disease vectors be a problem? What type of toxic materials can be expected in raw sewage inputs? Will the system discharge effluents into water either directly or indirectly? What effect will effluents have on biochemical oxygen demand? on marine biota? Petrochemical Industry: Have hydrologic, geologic, seismologic, and meteorologic studies of the site been made to anticipate and minimize damage to human populations and the environment if accidents occur? Will effluents contain toxic materials? How will they be controlled? What are the dangers of oil or chemical spills? What clean-up contingency plans are available? Mining Activities: How can water pollution from mine drainage be avoided? Will mine tunnels be shored or filled? Will strip mines be refilled and replanted? Can air pollution from coal fires, and smouldering slag heaps be prevented? Has adequate provision been made for resettlement of people displaced by or attracted to the mining operations? For offshore activities, is there a contingency plan for blowouts and spills? Could a spill kill a significant portion of marine biota? Ports and Harbor Development: Will topographical changes ad- versely affect marine life? Will they effect coastal nesting or spawn- ing patterns? How will wave and current action be modified? Will ships create unhealthy air pollution from stacks in view of prevailing winds? Will the development spawn unhealthy waterfront slum areas? Power Plants: How will liquid and solid residues be disposed of? What downwind environmental effects can be anticipated? What impact will thermal effluents have on receiving waters? What is the 9 extent and impact of the environmental degradation which could be expected in case of catastrophic failure? Pulp and Paper Industry: What are the types and quantities of the effluents to be discharged into the water and atmosphere? What will be their potential impact on plant, animal and human ecology? How will chemical raw materials and wastes be handled and stored? Is the site adequate for later expansion without harmful environmental ef- fects? How does the ecology of the region depend on forest cover? Can local weather changes be anticipated from extensive logging? How will logging influence water runoff and erosion? Airports: How will airport construction or expansion and attendant operations affect the adjacent human population and plant and ani- mal life? What effects will the airport have on raising or lowering the water table in the area? I-low will airplane noise affect hospitals, people, etc? Have provisions been made for resettlement in adequate housing of people displaced by airport construction or operations? Smelting Plants: Were alternative sites considered in an effort to mitigate downwind effects and/or water quality degradation? Will acidic fumes affect downwind crops, forests, or urbanized areas? Have provisions been made to prevent runoff of toxic materials into water bodies in the event of accident? Fertilizer Plants: What types and quantities of gaseous, liquid, and solid effluents will be discharged into the air, soil, and water? Are emission controls incorporated into plant design and operations? Will nitrogen and phosphorous entering surface water bodies stimulate the growth of algae and aquatic weeds? How will liquid and solid waste products be disposed of? What is the potential environmental impact? What safer alternatives should be considered? How will raw materials be handled and stored? Dam Construction: What new public health questions will arise from the construction of the dam? Will changes in water velocities, temperatures, and depth result in a more favorable environment for disease-bearing organisms? Will the changes in water patterns intro- duce those organisms into previously unaffected areas? What undesirable vegetative consequences will accompany res- ervoir development? How fast will siltation occur and how will sediment and salinity buildup be handled? Will undesirable down- stream pollutants be introduced? Road Construction: Will the roadway and related construction activities open up new pathways for carriers of disease affecting humans, plants or animals? Have provisions been made for adequate living conditions for people displaced by construction activities or for people attracted to newly-opened areas? Will soil stablization measures be taken during construction to 10 prevent, for example, soil erosion? Do the plans include provisions for prevention of water pollution by spillage and runoff during the construction or (luring the use of the road? CASE STUDY: Cameroon In the spring of 1971, an American consultant, hired by the World Bank, could be seen wading in the shallow watercourses which run from the river Logone in the West African country of Cameroon. The consultant was scraping the bottom of the waters and the ac- quatic vegetation growing along the banks with a one foot-square flat sieve attached to a four foot handle-a snail scoop. He was looking for the shells of snails which are the carriers of the dread tropical disease, bilharzia. Bilharzia, or schistosomiasis, is endemic in northeastern Cameroon, and it is estimated that at least 50 per cent of the people are affected by the disease. Bilharzia, once contracted, is extraordinarily difficult to cure, and it can afflict anyone coming into contact with water that harbors the Bulinas snail. Children who play in the water are es- pecially susceptible, as are women, who gather at the river to laun- der the family wash. Symptoms of the disease include dehydration, general physical debilitation, impairment of sight, abdominal cramps, high fever, jaundiced skin, and the passage of blood in the urine. A form of the disease that attacks the internal organs can even cause death. The consultant had been hired by the Bank to determine what the possible environmental effects of a prospective irrigation project in the Yagoua district of Cameroon might be. The project calls for reinforcing existing dikes in the region as well as constructing a new irrigation network to serve 3,000 hectares of land and 2,800 farm families. Agriculturalists believe that the cash income of the area's farmers could be increased five-fold by 1980 if irrigation facilities were improved. But the proposed project also included an element of danger: might those same additional irrigation facilities also increase the in- cidence of bilharzia, especially its severe visceral form? The fears were somewhat allayed when the consultant found few disease-carrying snail shells in his survey of the watercourses. He also reported that because overflow water from the nearby Logone River would be restricted in the area during the wet season, bil- harzia transmission would be lowered by reducing the extent of snail habitats for that part of the year. Nevertheless, because land in the project area could, in the future, be double-cropped, the danger remained, for the snails had been traditionally decimated during the dry season; in the future, there would be no dry season. A balancing factor was found, however: the presence of schistosomiasis-carrying snails is somewhat dis- couraged in rnuddy waters, and only turbid waters would flow through the new irrigation ditches. The consultant concluded that the irrigation project would, in all probability, not increase the health problems of the region. Nonethe- less, he recommended that if the project were to begin, a snail sur- vey in the area should be conducted every six months. He also proposed that a sanitary inspector, trained in snail identification, be hired to keep records of the vector snail distribution, and that if it should appear that bilharzia transmission were on the increase, a program of selective snail control be undertaken. The consultant's recommendations were consequently welcomed by the Cameroon Government and incorporated into the Bank's ap- praisal report of the project. CASE STUDY-Sao Paulo, Brazil Sao Paulo, Brazil's second largest municipality, is a boom city by any standards. The Sao Paulo metropolitan area is the major indus- trial and financial center of Brazil's most important economic area. Sao Paulo is the fastest growing city in the world. Today, more than eight million people live in the metropolitan area. That's triple the number of only a generation ago. Sao Paulo also has a pollution problem. Sao Paulo has a pollution problem because people are expensive, and in recent years there just have been too many people and not enough money to provide some essential services-such as sewage collection. Two-thirds of Sao Paulo's population is without municipal sewer service, and virtually all the city's liquid wastes are discharged into the Tiete River and its two tributaries that flow through the city. The river is, as a consequence, severely polluted. It is also prac- tically devoid of oxygen. The waters are dark and oily. The pollution is not so much an aesthetic problem, however. The pollution poses, rather, an economic problem: some of the poten- tially most valuable land within the city limits, land located along the banks of the Tiete and its tributaries, is totally unimproved, and is all but valueless. Values on other heavily residential riparian land, built up before pollution problems began, have been heavily de- pressed in recent years. The sad fact is that the Tiete River not only looks bad; it doesn't smell good either. Offensive odors are detectable at all times, and at periods of low flow, the river's noxious fumes can be smelled at distances of up to one kilometer away. 12 Even people and businesses in the world's fastest growing city hesitate to settle along the banks of the city's rivers. All that may be about to change, however. The Sao Paulo govern- ment is determined to do something about its water pollution, and the World Bank, impressed with plans for a scheme that might even- tually clear 70 per cent of the solid wastes and 45 per cent of the biochemical pollutants from the river, has agreed to finance the pro- ject's $15 million foreign exchange costs. In general terms, Sao Paulo's water pollution project-whose total cost is expected to top the $80 million mark-is designed to en- sure that all liquid wastes will be collected and pumped to a central treatment facility at a nearby reservoir. Specifically, plans call for the building of interceptor sewers along the rivers, a sewage pumping station, a transmission conduit from the pumping station to the reservoir, and the improvement of two existing sewage treatment plants. The water pollution project marks only the first stage in Sao Paulo's drive to extend needed public services to its fast-rising pop- ulation. By 1990, the State Government plans to extend sewerage service to two-thirds of its citizens. Even at that date, it is doubted whether the waters of the Tiete will be suitable for drinking. Nonetheless, it is expected that the water will be fiee of offensive smells and will contain enough oxy- gen to support higher forms of aquatic plant and fish life, and hence, will be suitable once again, for other important uses. Pollution control doesn't pay? The World Bank, in financing its first project exclusively for pollution abatement, estimates that the internal economic rate of return from the project will be about 30 per cent. CASE STUDY-Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia The fish aren't running like they used to in the Adriatic Sea. As long as five years ago, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) sounded the warning that the Adriatic was in trouble. Things haven't improved much since then in that beautiful body of water separating Italy from Yugoslavia. The waters of the south Adriatic are particularly and intensely blue near the Yugoslavian city of Dubrovnik. They are also polluted. Dubrovnik-the old, walled portion of the city of 30,000 people has been carefully preserved since its reconstruction after the great earthquake of 1667-has an old sewerage system. In fact, it's about 2,000 years old, built by sanitary engineers from the Roman Empire. The system was recently extended for a distance of about four kilometers, so that raw sewage would empty into the Adriatic Sea by the tip of a peninisula lying to the north of the old city. 13 And it is on that tip that Yugoslavia, with the help of World Bank financing, is to build one of the largest tourism complexes in the world, a complex which includes nine hotels with beds for 5,000 people, sports and recreation facilities, restaurants, shops and night clubs. Tourist revenues are of great importance to Yugoslavia's economic development. More than 3.5 per cent of the country's total work force can trace its employment directly to the tourism industry. A total of 30 million visitors to Yugoslavia in 1969 left behind more than $300 million in foreign exchange. Yugoslavia hopes to triple that figure by 1975. And the planned "Babin Kuk" resort near Dubrovnik figures importantly in those hopes. But a $20 million investment in a massive recreational facility which, at the same time, might be subject to hazardous pollutants is not an investment at all, but a gamble. No studies had ever been made to determine what the effect of additional raw sewage on the marine biota in the Dubrovnik area might be. No studies on the tidal movements and currents in the tourist complex area had been made, and therefore, no guarantee could be made that sewage would not befoul the beachs and waters of the peninsula. The World Bank, its consultants, and the Yugoslav marine biology station at Dubrovnik, got together to come up with a plan to mini- mize the effects on the marine environment by the development of Babin Kuk. The plans have been drawn up. Sewer outlets have been designed to keep wastes out of the area, leaving the waters clean for swim- ming and boating. The Yugoslav Government is also planning to modernize-at a cost of some $8 million-the sewerage system for the entire city of Dubrovnik. People come to Dubrovnik because, for centuries, it has not changed. But change accompanies people as inevitably as their baggage. The Bank and the Yugoslav Government are determined that changing Dubrovnik without changing Dubrovnik is one petard upon which they must not be hoisted. Meeting The Challenge The World Bank Group's role in helping protect the many environ- ments in the lesser-developed world will undoubtedly expand in the future. It will expand as man becomes more aware of the problems facing him; it will expand as man develops the technology to deal with those problems. It will expand as the Bank's lending operations increase; it will expand as the Bank not only incorporates environmental safeguards 14 into its many development projects, but as the Bank is called upon to finance the costs, in some areas, of environmental rehabilitation. The year 1970 was called by many the "Year of the Environment," an appellation that connotes a certain trendiness in the concern over the problerns of the environment. The World Bank Group is convinced that today's concern must not and will not abate tomor- row, for as long as nations strive to develop their economies, the danger, or at least the potential for danger, will exist. The danger may be somewhat mitigated by the continuation of the Bank Group's policy to install environmental safeguards into the projects it finances. (The Bank Group, to be sure, accounts for only about 10 per cent of the world total of public economic assistance; nevertheless, because it is the world's single largest multilateral lender for development, and the one with the most experience, its actions can and do assume an importance exceeding its actual share of financial commitments.) The Bank has been asked by several developing countries to give technical assistance in the preparation of comprehensive plans to combat their increasing pollution problems. That role is expected to increase. The Bank's Environmental Advisor also believes that in the future, the institution will be called upon to consider steps to help countries develop appropriate curricula and training programs for local environmental specialists. And the Bank is working, with other lending agencies, to come up with a common handbook of environmental criteria to guide project development. The problems of the environment are obviously too large to be dealt with by any single institution. For that reason, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment is regarded as a watershed in man's concern for his natural and physical surroundings. The expected presence of re- presentatives from 130 nations at that June meeting in Stockholm is evidence that no country and no peoples are exempt from the cur- rent effects and ultimate consequences of threats to the biospheric integrity of the planet. The World Bank Group, as an institution, is playing an important role in the preparation of the Conference; it has helped set the agenda, its staff members have written papers on the interrelation- ships between clevelopment and the environment for the Con- ferences's 27-nation preparatory committee, and its professionals have met frequently with all the specialized agencies of the United Nations participating in the meeting. "We don't know what the Conference presages for the Bank," Dr. Lee says. But, he adds, "the Bank, because of its unique position and history, may find itself responsible for new and exciting activities. I'm convinced we can meet the challenge." 15 INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20433 U.S.A. Telephone number EXecutive 3-6360 Cable address INTBAFRAD Office for Europe: 66, Avenue d'l6na, Paris 1 6e. France Telephone number: 720-2510 Cable address: INTBAFRAD PARIS