
DATE: Friday, May 30, 1997                  TAG: 9705300639
SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A4   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Focus 

SOURCE: BY STAN GROSSFELD, BOSTON GLOBE 
                                            LENGTH:   41 lines

FOCUS: EARTH SUMMIT'S FAILURE FIVE YEARS AFTER THE EARTH SUMMIT RAISED HOPES FOR WORLDWIDE ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRESS, FEW OF THE PROMISES AND ACCORDS HAVE BEEN HONORED. NEXT MONTH THE U.N. PLANS TO HOLD A SPECIAL SESSION TO EVALUATE WHETHER PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE.

Five years after the Earth Summit raised hopes for worldwide environmental progress, most of the promises and accords have failed to translate into action. The Brazilian rain forest, for example, is disappearing at a faster rate than ever.

Five years ago, amid great fanfare and high hopes, 100 world leaders and 10,000 diplomats from 178 countries descended on Rio de Janeiro for an Earth Summit that produced sweeping accords on sustainable development, biological diversity, climate change and forests. For complete copy of this wire story, see microfilm ILLUSTRATION: Photo by THE NEW YORK TIMES

A boy, 15, works amid the soot of a timber camp in Paragominas, an

area that was once part of Brazil's rain forest. The rain forest is

disappearing at a faster rate than ever.

Graphic

U.S sets a poor example

Graphic

Locally

Every five years an area of rain forest roughly the size of Virginia

is destroyed. KEYWORDS: EARTH SUMMITT