Joe Issa Pleased with US Charity Helping Jamaica out of its Debt Burden

As Jamaica reels under a debt payment obligation which leaves little for development, including environmental sustainability, Civic leader and environmental advocate Joe Issa, says it would be a great relief and a positive move for Jamaica should it be freed from its huge debt burden to allow it to focus on environmental projects for sustainable development.

“This sounds too good to be true, but because we are dealing with a reputable organization, I believe there is integrity in the deal. It will be a great relief to have our huge debt totally wiped out and all we have to do in return, is to implement projects already in our programme for environmental sustainability,” says Issa, adding, “This should be easy as Jamaica always pays its debt.”

Issa was reacting to news that The Nature Conservancy was assisting some countries, including Jamaica, by raising funds to buy their debt and then allow them to use that money to implement environmentally sustainable projects.

In making a case for Jamaica to rid itself of the debt burden, Issa stated that “much of Jamaica’s inability to grow is due to its abnormally high debt to GDP (Gross Domestic Product) ratio, which increases its cost of borrowing as it is regarded as a potential risk for defaulting on future payments.”

The organization is said to have successfully negotiated millions for the Seychelles Island and has been approached by other countries looking for a similar deal, including Jamaica. Currently, negotiations are dais to be on for six territories, three of which are in the Caribbean, with Grenada and St Kitts & Nevis being the other two.

Currently, The Nature Conservancy is believed to be close to finalizing a deal for St Kitts-Nevis, covering its debt of EC$29 million (One EC dollar =US$0.37 cents).

The way the debt swap initiative works is that The Nature Conservancy negotiates to have, for example, Jamaica’s debt purchased by a third party and that money is then transferred to a Trust established in accordance with Jamaican law.

So, instead of Jamaica making payments to the external creditor, the payments are made to the internal Trust for use in environmental-based developmental programmes. Under the initiative, the debt is totally wiped out once the country abides with the swapping deal.

Jamaica’s Debt to GDP ratio was said to be 132.72 per cent in 2014, and averaged 119.62 per cent from 1999 until 2014, reaching an all-time high of 135.5 per cent in 2013 and a record low of 87.31 per cent in 1999.

According to Wikipedia, The Nature Conservancy is a charitable environmental organization, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia in the United States. Its mission is to conserve the environment that all life depends on and partners with the world’s largest corporations.

Some of The Nature Conservancy’s fund raising partners cited include 3M Company, Alliant Energy Altria Group, American Electric Power, Bank of America, Barrick Gold Corporation, The Boeing Company, BP, Cargill, Caterpillar Inc., Chevron, The Coca-Cola Company, and Delta Air Lines.

The Dow Chemical Company, Duke Energy Corporation, Eastman Kodak Company, Ecolab Inc., ExxonMobil Corporation, MeadWestvaco Corporation, Monsanto Company, Nestlé Waters North America, PG&E Corporation, Plum Creek Timber Company, SC Johnson & Son, Inc., Temple-Inland, Weyerhaeuser Company and Xerox Corporation are also onboard with the organization.

The Nature Conservancy, which was founded in Arlington, Virginia, in 1951, is now said to impact 69 countries, including all 50 states of the US. It has more than a million members and has protected over 119 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers around the world. It also operates more than 100 marine conservation projects globally and has assets totaling $6.18 billion as of 2014, said the website.

It is said to be the largest environmental non-profit by assets and by revenue in the Americas and is rated as one of the most trusted national organizations in Harris Interactive polls every year since 2005.

Forbes magazine is said to have rated The Nature Conservancy’s fundraising efficiency at 88 per cent in its 2005 survey of the largest U.S. charities. It was also given a two-star rating by Charity Navigator in 2012 (three-star in 2010) and was on their 2005 list of “10 of the Best Charities Everyone’s Heard Of”. The Conservancy was given an A�' rating by The American Institute of Philanthropy and is on its list of “Top-Rated Charities”, Wikipedia said.

Noting that The Conservancy is led by President and CEO Mark Tercek, a former managing director at Goldman Sachs, and an adjunct professor at the New York University Stern School of Business, Wikipedia informs that the organization “draws from all segments of the community” and that “retired General Norman Schwarzkopf, the commander of coalition forces during the First Gulf War, was a member of the Conservancy’s President’s Conservation Council.”