La Trampa Verde de los Canjes de Deuda por Naturaleza

The document critiques debt-for-nature swaps (CDN), asserting they function as a 'green trap' that reinforces financial dependence and extractivism in the Global South. It claims these mechanisms transfer control of national territories and policies to foreign NGOs and private actors while providing minimal conservation funding. The text argues that the current international financial architecture forces indebted nations into a cycle of austerity and extractivism to service debts, and calls for the cancellation of illegitimate debts and the recognition of the North's ecological debt to the South.

• Debt-for-nature swaps are characterized as neocolonial tools that facilitate the loss of national sovereignty and the privatization of common goods by granting control over territories and funds to private actors and foreign NGOs without local participation.
• The financial structure of these swaps often benefits new creditors more than debtor nations or biodiversity, with some cases resulting in the militarization of territories, food sovereignty restrictions, or community evictions.
• Modern debt-for-nature swaps have evolved from bilateral agreements to complex financial schemes involving investment funds and 'blue' or 'green' bonds, where debt is repurchased in secondary markets and converted into new loans from 'green' entities with more opaque and demanding conditions.
• Indebted countries in the Global South are trapped in a cycle where they must rely on extractivist industries—such as mining, oil, gas, and agribusiness—to generate foreign currency for debt payments, which in turn leads to deforestation and the reduction of public spending on social and environmental programs.

APA

Friends of the Earth International (2025). La Trampa Verde de los Canjes de Deuda por Naturaleza. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/43-FoEI-Debt-for-Nature-Swap-summary-ES-rhr.pdf

Chicago

Friends of the Earth International. La Trampa Verde de los Canjes de Deuda por Naturaleza. 2025. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/43-FoEI-Debt-for-Nature-Swap-summary-ES-rhr.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Friends of the Earth International |title=La Trampa Verde de los Canjes de Deuda por Naturaleza |date=October 2025 |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/43-FoEI-Debt-for-Nature-Swap-summary-ES-rhr.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{friendsoftheearthinternational2025trampa, author = {{Friends of the Earth International}}, title = {{La Trampa Verde de los Canjes de Deuda por Naturaleza}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2025}, month = oct, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/43-FoEI-Debt-for-Nature-Swap-summary-ES-rhr.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }