A New Green Order?

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is a publicly funded, multi-billion dollar experiment in global resource management. It was set up in 1991 under the auspices of the World Bank to fund international conventions on climate change and biodiversity. Investigating the workings of this unique and little known aid fund, Zoe Young takes a critical look at the conflicts involved, how its agenda relates to questions of globalization, knowledge and accountability in the United States and the World Bank.The author explains why the GEF was formed by Western governments to deflect protest against the environmental impacts of the World Bank and the IMF in the 1980s while controlling the scope of the new treaties. She examines how, although it was intended to promote reform and co-operation for "global" conservation, the GEF cannot challenge damaging economic policies or powerful interest groups. Instead it has helped to put prices on nature and open up Southern resources and markets to "global" experts and investors.