Italy: eco park created with Peru debt cancellation

From the restructuring of Peru?s foreign debt, an Eco park, for science and environment, is born in the Amazon area. The ?Amazon Ecopark?, born thanks to an initiative of the University of Florence, will be based in Quitos, Peru. The Ecopark will create opportunities for a sustainable development: it will be a centre for the protection of the environment and of local cultural resources, a reference point for training and a site for testing new environmental technologies. The project of the Amazonian EcoPark is part of the ?Programme for foreign debt restructuring? promoted by law 209/2000: It is the result of the campaign for foreign debt reduction of the poorest countries in the world started in 2000 with the HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries) initiative, promoted by the G7/G8. The debt of Peru towards Italy amounts to about 126 million dollars: Instead of returning the debt, the mechanism plans actions of economic conversion, aimed at realizing projects involving debtor and creditor countries. The Ecopark project converts a debt of about 2 million dollars and is one of the five most important between Peru and Italy. Inside the park there will also be structures dedicated to eco-tourism, administrated by local communites but promoted in Europe, aimed at cutting mediation costs. www.unifi.it