InfoBrief--April 12, 2006

US Current Affairs and Media

• University of Michigan Resumes Contract with Coca-Cola The University of Michigan announced this week that it plans to resume purchase of Coca-Cola products after the company arranged for two independent investigations into its labor and environmental practices in Colombia and India. The International Labor Organization (ILO), a United Nations agency, agreed on March 24 to begin an investigation into Coca-Cola’s practices in Colombia, while The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has been indicated as the body that will conduct investigations in India. The announcement has disappointed many students and activists campaigning against Coca-Cola, who maintain that the organizations retained by Coca- Cola to conduct these investigations are not truly independent. These assertions stem from the fact that Ed Potter, Coca-Cola’s director of global labor relations, also serves as a business representative to the ILO, while Deepak Parehk, chairman of India’s Housing Development Finance Corp., serves on both Coca-Cola India’s advisory board and the governing council of TERI. The University of Michigan dropped its contract with Coca-Cola in January after the company was found to be in violation of the school’s Vendor Code of Conduct for its labor and environmental practices in Colombia and India.

  Click here for more information about the campaign against Coca-Cola

• World Bank Grants Colombia $20.4 million for Environment The World Bank announced this week that it plans to award Colombia two grants, totaling $20.4 million, from its Global Environment Facility (GEF). These grants will help facilitate the consolidation of Colombia’s National Protected Areas System, and the creation of a Biodiversity and Protected Areas Trust Fund. Additionally, the funds will be used to help combat the effects of climate change within the country. The National Protected Area System will, according to the World Bank, “manage both endowment and sinking funds. The endowment will support incremental, recurrent costs in protected areas, while sinking funds will undertake direct investments in protected areas and surrounding complementary landscapes, named conservation mosaics.” An integral part of these operations will be the “consolidation” of nine national parks and fourteen conservation mosaics, which consist of protected area categories and collectively-owned ethnic territories. Monies from the grants are also allocated for programs to help offset the effects of climate change “which are projected to impose heavy burdens on the country’s prospects for sustainable development.

  Click here for more information on World Bank programs in Colombia