Data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) suggests that Official Development Assistance (ODA), by far the most important source of funds for projects supporting biodiversity, has fallen from its 1992 peak of US$1.22 billion to US$269 million in 1993 and to US$208 million in 1994. Bilateral donor funding has also been significantly reduced over the same time period. This major fall-off has not been offset by funding from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), which is the Convention's interim funding mechanism. Assistance from the GEF has fallen from US$332 million in its 1991-93 pilot phase to US$65 million in the fiscal year ending June 1995. In the year ending June 1996 it dropped further to a meagre US$23 million. As a percentage of the GEF portfolio, biodiversity projects represented 40% in the pilot phase, 45% in fiscal year 1995 and 7% in 1996.
3. The First World's support for the Green Revolution and plant monocultures for grains, timber, and other crops undermines biodiversity in Third World countries. By forcing Third World farmers and governments to use the new Green Revolution hybrid seeds, pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides from global agricultural companies, First World countries are undermining biodiversity, replacing local seeds and strains of plants with global hybrids. First World countries force Third World countries to use these hybrid seeds and chemicals by threatening to deny development loans to countries to refuse to use these Green Revolution seeds. As a result, we are witnessing the spreading growth of global monocultures and the increasing control over seeds and crop strains by global agricultural companies.