A Review of the World Bank's 1991 Forest Policy and its
Implementation
12/20/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: A Review of the World Bank's 1991 Forest Policy and its
Implementation
Source: Operations Evaluation Department, The World Bank
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 20, 1999
Byline: Bruce Cabarle
From the Executive Summary, (emphasis added, page xii)
"Moveover, the (1991) policy has made the Bank wary of getting
involved in experiments to improve forest management or to address
illegal logging. The 200 million hectare target of sustainable
forest management, which is already part of the Bank's new global
initiative, is the handmaiden of forest conservation. It deserves
more emphasis in a revised forest policy. It offers the potential for
"win-win" outcomes, with better yields and more conservation."
Miscellaneous excerpts from the main body of the OED review
"Extension of protected areas is welcomed by environmentalists as an
indication of the countries commitment to conservation including the
Bank's new Global Alliance (with WWF)."
"Certification is potentially a powerful instrument to improve forest
management in developing countries, diversify the sources of
accreditation of forest management from the current monopoly of
governments, improve forest management technologies and practices,
stimulate capacity building among consumers and producers of forest
products for sound environmental management, and generally increase
producer and consumer awareness."
" But to succeed, certification must operate in countries that use
market-based instruments for internalizing environmental and social
externalities. For certification to be effectively employed,
countries must have continuing and growing demand for certified
products, government support, national standards for improved forest
management (where exports are involved, standards that are compatible
with international standards), and an enforcement mechanism to ensure
that the standards are adequately met and results are relayed to
major stakeholders in a transparent and credible manner. It must
also enable rural communities to participate actively in this new
process. In countries with weak institutions, certification could
encourage corruption. The practice may also become a non-tariff
barrier for exports of products from developing or Eastern European
countries if not applied across the board."
"Yet it (certification) is leading to far greater debate in forest-
rich developing countries about improving forest management than the
1991 policy could have envisaged."
"While the Bank has been active in processes related to the Kyoto
Protocol and some important new initiatives related to climate
change, its participation in global forest sector developments, such
as the International Panel on Forests and [its successor], the
International Forum on Forests, had been limited and unpredictable.
But this has changed considerably with President Wolfensohn's
initiatives [the CEOs Forum on Forests and Global Alliance] which
also stimulated the ESSD review of the forest policy."
From paragraph 95. Global Alliance survey. (pp 32-33, bullets added
for clarity)
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Uma Lele, the OED/Forest Policy evaluation team
leader, sent out a questionnaire on the Alliance to 22 members of
the WWF network listed as country team members in the Alliance's
Interim Progress Report of April 99. The same questionnaire was
circulated among the Bank staff involved in either the steering
committee or country-level activities of the Alliance. The
following conclusions were drawn from the responses to that
questionnaire.
* Respondents believe that the Global Alliance strengthens the
environmental expertise of both the Bank and the World Wildlife Fund
and uses their comparative advantages.
* The Alliance's main benefits are increased funding for conservation
activities, increased attention to improved forest management, and
the establishment of best practices in forest management.
* Its drawbacks include a "top-down" approach, limited financial
resources, and limited staff time of Bank staff for alliance
activities.
* The majority of World Wildlife Fund staff state that the target of
establishing 50 million hectares of new forest-protected areas is
realistic, but they are much less certain about the potential for
placing 200 million hectares under independently certified management
by 2005.
* Bank staff consider both of these goals to be unrealistic under
current circumstances of internal and external constraints.
* Alliance members thought that a fuller integration of the alliance
agenda with the Bank's agenda was essential. They stressed the
importance of building a longer-term vision with clearer regional
targets and improved communications and reporting.
* Either more resources should be allocated to the alliance or its
clients should be informed about the fiscal constraints so that
expectations are not unrealistic.
* Both WWF and Bank staff consider decentralization, realistic
targets, and increased stakeholder participation important to
increase the effectiveness of the alliance.
From the Conclusions (paragraph 102, page 36)
.Several policy experiments are underway involving the certification
of wood products (some related to the Bank's Global Alliance) and
forest management. But there is little experience with certification
in developing countries and uniform international standards for
sustainable forest management are unlikely, given the diversity in
forest types, values and functions. Therefore it would be unwise for
the Bank to endorse a specific certification standard (as it has
implicitly in its Global Alliance initiative). Yet the Bank must
actively entertain alternative methods of certification provided they
meet acceptable criteria and indicators. Recent research has shown
that this is possible, albeit with considerable adaptation of the
indicators to local circumstances of developing countries. Improved
or low-impact management of natural forests has the potential to
increase the efficiency of multiple functions and services that
forests produce. Improved management practices would make production
and services per hectare more sustainable than is the case today and
would increase the yields of timber as well as non-timber products.
.The Bank Group should ensure that forest concerns receive due
consideration in all relevant sectors and should support activities
that will help protect natural forest of prime global and national
value. The Bank could make an analytical contribution in this area
and promote experimentation by supporting the development of research
and analysis, guidelines, criteria, and indicators for improved
forest management. It could also contribute by helping to create
both public and private capacity for widespread application of better
forest management.
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