Canje de deuda por naturaleza: la necesidad de una nueva agenda

Vol. 13 No. 3 (1993)

Jul-Sep / 1993
Published July 1, 1993
PDF-Spanish
PDF-Spanish

How to Cite

Devlin, Robert. 1993. “Canje De Deuda Por Naturaleza: La Necesidad De Una Nueva Agenda”. Brazilian Journal of Political Economy 13 (3):405-18. https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31571993-0660.

Canje de deuda por naturaleza: la necesidad de una nueva agenda

Robert Devlin
De Comisión Económica para America Latina y el Caribe – CEPAL. Santiago de Chile.
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 13 No. 3 (1993), Jul-Sep / 1993, Pages 405-418

Abstract

Debt for nature swaps generally involve significant fiscal costs. As for the benefits
for the developing country and its government, they are potentially ambiguous. The
projects financed by the swaps typically involve the protection of exotic flora and fauna in
which a considerable part of the social returns is externalized to the rest of the world. This,
coupled with high social rates of discount in crisis-ridden developing countries, could mean
that the benefits accrued to the international community actually end up exceeding those
perceived by the population at large in debtor country. Hence the need to reorient the international
agenda for swaps so that the environmental projects financed by them have a more
direct impact on local population, e.g., control of urban air pollution and sewerage and
industrial contamination of rivers and seas. Meanwhile, in view of the great international externalities involved, the protection of exotic flora and fauna could be financed through
straight donations that do not involve fiscal costs for the debtor country.

JEL Classification: H63; Q50.


Keywords: Public debt green finance