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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Report
States World Bank Can Use Leverage to Slow Forest Destruction
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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org
http://forests.org/ -- Forest
Conservation Archives
http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest
Conservation
3/22/00
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY
The
World Resources Institute has issued a report that concludes
"forest
policy reforms in (World Bank) structural adjustment loans can
help
establish improved policies for forest management in developing
countries." I cannot weigh in on this statement
completely
objectively,
in that I have been involved in such efforts by the World
Bank in
Papua New Guinea. However, in this case
it is my opinion that
significant
forest conservation has resulted from an innovative and
non-traditional
approach. Without this intervention in
support of
civil
society and government reformers, essentially all of PNG's
forests--the
third largest remaining tropical rainforest wilderness--
would
be allocated by now and being cleared.
What has been achieved
is
breathing space for development of a more sustainable development
paradigm,
which includes conservation areas.
There are no guarantees-
-as the
following article illustrates, implementing the reform program
has
proven more difficult than their development and announcement.
g.b.
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Title: New Report Reveals World Bank Can Use Its
Leverage to Slow Forest Destruction
Source: Business Wire, from World Resources
Institute
Status: Copyright 2000, contact source for
permission to reprint
Date: March 22, 2000
WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS
WIRE)--March 22, 2000--A new report released
today
by the World Resources Institute (WRI) concludes that the
inclusion
of forest policy reforms in structural adjustment loans can
help
establish improved policies for forest management in developing
countries.
``Under
the right conditions, the World Bank's inclusion of forestry
issues
in structural adjustment loans can tip the scales towards
reformers
and deal setbacks to vested interests in unsustainable
logging,''
said Frances Seymour and Dr. Navroz Dubash. They are lead
authors
of The Right Conditions: The World Bank, Structural
Adjustment,
and Forest Policy Reform.
The WRI
report focuses on Papua New Guinea, Cameroon, Indonesia and
Kenya
-- countries where the World Bank deliberately linked structural
adjustment
programs to forest policy changes.
``The
right conditions in the World Bank are rare,'' said Seymour.
``They
include strong internal support for the forest-related
conditionality,
and a willingness to engage a broad set of forest-
related
issues and actors in the borrower country.'' The right
conditions
in the borrower country include the existence of a domestic
constituency
for reform, and policy changes that can be effected by
the
stroke of a pen. However, structural adjustment has proven much
less
effective as a tool to effect implementation of complex
institutional
reforms.
The WRI
report comes on the heels of an evaluation by the World Bank
of its
decade-old forest policy, which concluded that the World Bank
has had
only a ``negligible'' impact on reducing rates of
deforestation
in developing countries through investments in forest
projects.
Only a
small proportion of its structural adjustment loans have
directly
addressed forest-related or other environmental concerns,
even
though such loans constituted more than half of the institution's
lending
last year.
``Corrupt
officials and their friends in the logging industry often
manage
to undermine efforts for forest policy reform,'' said Dr.
Dubash.
``Our report shows that tying structural adjustment loans to
forest-related
conditions can raise the national profile of forest
issues
and catalyze improvements in governance that are essential for
improved
forest policy.''
The
report challenges emerging conventional wisdom that the World Bank
should
support only those governments that are already committed to
reform,
and withhold support where this commitment is lacking. ``Such
selectivity
ignores the embattled reformers in many borrower countries
who
could be empowered by World Bank attention to poor forest
management,''
said Seymour.
The
report identifies several changes in the way the World Bank does
business
that are necessary to embrace this new approach. ``To be
effective,
the World Bank must proactively identify local
constituencies
for reform and broaden the scope of structural
adjustment
lending to include environmental, equity and governance
objectives,''
said Dr. Dubash. ``This will require changes in
policies,
personnel, and budgeting systems to give World Bank staff
the
incentives and resources to play these new roles effectively.''
The WRI
study also reveals:
* In
Indonesia, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund
took
advantage of the 1997 financial crises to spotlight poor
governance
in the forest sector, and forced the dismantling of forest
product
monopolies controlled by a crony of then-president Suharto.
The
World Bank used its leverage to require increased transparency and
public
participation in the reform process itself.
* In
Papua New Guinea, progressive forces in the government
bureaucracy
and their allies in the World Bank were successful in
using
adjustment lending to consolidate policies that reined in
rampant
logging. For several years, they prevented repeated attempts
by
loggers to roll back these reforms.
* In
Cameroon, the World Bank supported a law that reduced the
government's
room for discretion in concession allocation and timber
pricing.
The government reneged on its commitments on a number of
occasions,
and received mixed signals from the World Bank at a
critical
juncture. Forest-related conditionalities in the most recent
structural
adjustment loan are intended to keep the reforms on track.
* In
Kenya, World Bank staff proposed an innovative ``environmental
adjustment''
loan focused completely on environmental policy reform,
and
attempted to include civil society representatives in adjustment-
related
discussions. However, the effort was undermined by
insufficient
leadership in the country and inconsistent support for
the
concept within the World Bank.
The
World Resources Institute (WRI) is a Washington, DC-based center
for
research that provides objective information and practical
proposals
for change to foster environmentally sound and sustainable
development.
WRI
works with institutions in more than 50 countries to bring the
insights
of scientific research, economic analyses and practical
experience
to political, business and nongovernmental organizations
around
the world. For more information, visit WRI's website at:
http://www.wri.org/wri
---------------
Contact:
World Resources Institute
Adlai J. Amor, Media Director,
202/729-7736
Fax: 202/729-7707
aamor@wri.org
http://www.wri.org
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