WDF Expert Panel on the Environment

Preliminary staff notes for purpose of discussion

1. Scope

• Population management
• Harmonizing super projects with the natural environment
• Conservation and preservation of diversity
• Restoration of damaged habitats

2. Issues: questions, challenges, objectives

• What projects should have highest priority?
• What projects are needed for a global environmental enhancement system?
• Identify routes for global greenways.
• Identify environmental experts having a positive "can do" approach to solving problems that stand in the way of vital super projects. For example, how can the Pan American highway be extended through the Darien Gap while protecting the environment? Explore alternatives, such as
  • Building an elevated highway
  • Banning on or off ramps in sensitive areas
  • Using tunnels under sensitive areas
  • Combinations of the above

3. Projects of interest

1. Australia reforestation project
2. Boston Harbor cleanup
3. Brazil Amazon reforestation. Co. Vale do Rio Doce.
4. Chernobyl cleanup
5. Director of Int'l Cmsn. for Protection of the Rhine or Head of Section, German Federal Ministry of the Environment
6. East Europe cleanup
7. Earth Observation System
8. Egypt. Qattara depression plan
9. Land mine cleanup
10. Nuclear cleanup estimates. Ebasco?
11. Page, Ariz. (USA): Navajo generating station air pollution/EPA edict
12. Rhine Action Plan
13. Shimizu (Japan): desert aqua net plan
14. Siberia project
15. US Dept. of Energy: Yucca nuclear waste facility
16. World Bank: Middle East and North Africa project. $1 billion per year beginning 1995
17. Yuma, Ariz. (USA): desalination plant

    Additional Notes for 1996 conference

18. Black Sea Environmental Project -- with support from the European Union and World Bank. A 20 year multi-billion project.
19. Amazon Surveillance System (SIVAM) -- will monitor basin for illegal activities. $1 billion plus. Involves Export Import Bank financing.
20. Utah -- At Toele, near Salt Lake City, a new incinerator has been built to burn chemical weapons stored there. This is part of a multi-billion dollar program.
21. Alberta, Canada -- New technologies and changing market conditions have produced renewed interest in producing oil from the huge Athabasca oil sands deposits. Two firms are investing $1 billion each in immediate expansion of facilities and Canadian government sources predict an investment of $20 billion during the two subsequent decades.
22. Nigeria -- Shell Oil is investing in a $3,6 billion lquified natural gas project.
23. Florida -- Vice Preident Al Gore has proposed a $1.5 billion seven-year project for "replumbing" the "River of Grass" -- that is, the watershed of the everglades region.
24. Global -- the Export-Import Bank estimates that the curent market for environmental protection and enhancement projects is $400 billion and will grow to $600 billion.
25. Brazil -- there is continuing controversy over the planned $1.4 billion Amazon Vigilance System (SIVAM) radar and telecomunications sytem.
26. Canada, Northwest Territory -- Well-known global mining firms, such as Broken Hill Proprietary of Australia, and DeBeers of South Africa are investing in new multi-billion dollar diamond-mining ventures. Focus is the area around Koala.

4. Experts and expert groups

1. Alert Disaster Control (Asia) Pte Ltd - Alastair N. Campbell, Senior Instructor (Singapore)
2. Asian Development Bank
3. CH2M Hill: Dr. Timothy A. White
4. Conservation Fund, Henry P. Little, Director of Corporate Programs (USA)
5. Conservation Strategist John G. Robinson, vice president, NYZS The Wildlife Conservation Society; also on steering committee for The World Conservation Union (Robinson oversees 160 conservation projects in 44 countries)
6. Conway Conservation, Linda Duever (USA)
7. CRSS, Inc. Camp Dresser McKee: Dick Fox, Boston Harbor Cleanup
8. Disney Development Company/Disney Wilderness Preserve: Robert E. Boos, Senior Project Mgr., Planning Department
9. Dr. Ian Rowlands, Centre for the Study of Global Governance (London). Good on political aspects of global environment
10. DuPont: Asturias (Spain)
11. EBRD: Peter Whitford, principal environmental specialist, Europe and Central Asia, Middle East and North Africa regions Environmental Partnership for Central Europe.
12. EQE International Limited - Dr. Alan Reeves, Technical Director and Eileen Doyle, Principal Engineer
13. Global Environment Emerging Markets Fund. Jeffrey Leonard, President.
14. ICF Kaiser Engineers: Mei-Kao Liu, Senior Vice President - California (Taiwan)
15. Institut Francais du Petrole South East Asia - E Y Bourg, Business Development Manager, Singapore (Singapore)
16. IUCN (Int'l. Union for Conservation of Nature) -- Switzerland
17. Kitakyushu (Japan) Environmental Cleanup: Yoshihiro Takahashi, Japan Local Govt. Center, New York City
18. Kubota Corp. (Japan): desert afforestation using water treatment technology
19. National Wildlife Federation: Sharon Newsome, vice president for resources conservation
20. Netherlands Nat'l Enviro Policy Plan, Paul de Jongh, deputy director (Netherlands)
21. Patrick Coady, Senior Fellow, Conservation International and former U.S. Exec. Dir. of The World Bank
22. President of Costa Rica (Darien Gap options?)
23. Raytheon Company/IBM Brazil (Amazon environmental monitoring system: SIVAM)
24. Shinya Izumi: "Solving environmental challenges associated with super projects"
    Professor emeritus of TAMA Art University; overall producer of EXPO'90 in Osaka
25. Society for Ecological Restoration, Dr. Andy Clewell (USA)
26. Turner Foundation - Peter Bahouth, Executive Director, (environmental philanthropic fund)
27. UCLA, Alfred Y. Wong, plasma physicist (atmospheric chlorofluorocarbon curtain) (USA)
28. UN Environment Programme: Desertification Control Programme: Franklin Cardy, Director (Kenya)
29. UNIDO (Austria)
30. Universiti Malaysia Sarawak - Prof. Dr. John H. Beaman, Pengarah Director (Malaysia)
31. US Dept of Defense: Sherry Wasserman Goodman, dep. undersecretary for environmental security (Dept. of Defense's top environmental policy maker) (USA)
32. World Bank:
    Ken Newcombe, Division Chief, Global Environment Coordination Division, Environment Department
    Michael Cohen, chief, Urban Development Division. Paper on "Megacities and the Environment" in Finance and Development (6/93)
    John Dixon, senior environmental economist, Pollution and Environmental Economics Division, Environmental Department (12/93)
    Andrew Steer, deputy director of Environmental Department
33. World Wildlife Fund: Archie Carr

5. Previous presentations and available documents

Vision of the World of the 21st Century
Robert S. McNamara
1992 Global Super Projects Conference
The former President of the World Bank focuses on two issues, which, he says, will shape the future: the end of the Cold War and the population explosion

Creative Solutions for Environmental Risk
Thomas Hallett (Senior V.P., Alexander & Alexander)
1993 Global Super Projects Conference
Case studies are presented to demonstrate how special insurance companies can be created for the purpose of funding risks which are uninsurable in the commercial marketplace and how those companies can pay dividends back to the contractor-owners for good experience.

Environmental Cleanup of Nuclear Waste as a Global Super Project
Michael Raudenbush (Pres., Western Div., The Stoller Corp.)
1993 Global Super Projects Conference
One of the most significant of environmental challenges involves the safe management and disposal of radioactive materials and wastes

Paseo Pantera: Preserving Biological Diversity in Central America
Archie Carr III (Regl. Coord. Mesoamerica & the Carib. Wildlife Conservation Soc.)
1993 Global Super Projects Conference
Paseo Pantera is a new project designed to preserve biological diversity and enhance wildlands management in Central America.

The Disintegration of Central and Eastern Europe: Overview and Trade Opportunities
Michael A. Lacher, Esq.
1993 Global Super Projects Conference
This presentation provides an overview of the political, legal, and economic disintegration in Central and Eastern Europe and how to structure investment opportunities in the region to minimize the risks created by this disintegration.

The Reconstruction of Kuwait Following Desert Storm
Col. Ralph V. Locurcio, U.S. Corps of Engineers
1992 Global Super Projects Conference
Col. Locurcio discusses the Corps efforts in the reconstruction of Kuwait following Desert Storm.

Staff Coordinator for this page is Laura Lyne.  Last Updated 16 April 1996.

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