ACTION ALERT UPDATE!

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FOREST CONSERVATION NEWS TODAY

Conservationists at Loggerheads over World Bank Logging Subsidies

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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org, Inc.

http://forests.org/ -- Forest Conservation Portal

http://www.EnvironmentalSustainability.info/ -- Eco-Portal

http://www.ClimateArk.org/ -- Climate Change Portal

World Bank to Resume Financing of Rainforest Destruction

** Updated: Bank approval of their flawed proposal has been delayed

http://forests.org/emailaction/bank.htm

October 30, 2002

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Forests.org

It appears that eco-centric forest conservationists have slowed and

may still defeat plans by the World Bank to subsidize commercial

logging of the World's remaining large, primary rainforests.  Despite

a recent announcement that approval of the dismal policy change in

was imminent (http://forests.org/recent/2002/dodesold.htm), the

Bank's "Forest Policy Implementation Review and Strategy" web site at

http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/ESSD/FORESTPOL-E.NSF/MAINVIEW still

states they are "in the process of finalizing the review of its

forest sector strategy" and that they will provide "general response

to the major issues raised in comments we received on this website,

within two weeks."  Clearly the several hundred thousand comments we

continue to generate to the World Bank Board and President at

http://forests.org/emailaction/bank.htm are having an impact.  In

addition, Forests.org has been interviewed by numerous media

organizations including the BBC, BioMedNet (below) and others.  The

profile of our campaign to protect the World's remaining large

primary forests from commercial development is growing.  Thank you

for you collaboration on this and other important matters.

g.b.

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Title:  Conservationists at loggerheads over World Bank proposal

Source:  Copyright 2002 BioMedNet News, http://www.bmn.com/

Date:  October 29, 2002

Byline:  William F. Laurance

Conservationists and logging advocates are embroiled in a bitter

controversy that could help determine the fate of the world's

remaining tropical rainforests. Ironically, both sides argue that

they have the best interests of forests at heart.

Each year, about 15 million acres of tropical forest are logged, most

of it virgin forest. Proponents of logging argue that selective

timber-cutting (removing a small percentage of all trees with

bulldozers and other heavy equipment) is the only economically

realistic way that developing nations can justify retaining large

areas of managed forest, rather than destroying it outright for

agriculture. Many conservationists, however, argue that logging

severely degrades forests and - even worse - that the loggers

increase forest destruction by creating labyrinths of roads which

give slash-and-burn farmers, hunters, and ranchers easy access to

frontier areas.

At the heart of the controversy is the World Bank's proposal to

resume financial support for rainforest logging, in conjunction with

other rural-development and conservation programs. Following intense

criticism from environmental groups, the Bank halted funding for

logging of primary forests in the early 1990s. But it now appears

likely that the Bank will renew its support for timber-cutting under

new, more restrictive guidelines.

Conservationists fear the proposed policy will do more harm than

good. Glen Barry, a conservation biologist at the University of

Wisconsin at Madison, said that he "strongly condemns" the World

Bank's plan and that, over the past decade, the Bank had "failed

miserably to reform commercial logging in Papua New Guinea,

Indonesia, Cameroon, and elsewhere."

"The Bank likes to talk about 'sustainable forest management' as a

euphemism for logging," he argued, "but all they truly care about

sustaining is foreign exchange revenues and timber yields - not

complex rainforest ecosystems." Barry cited a number of problems with

the World Bank plan, including a need to protect old-growth and

ecologically important forests from logging, and to safeguard forests

from being converted to exotic timber and oil-palm plantations.

The Rainforest Action Network, a San Francisco-based environmental

group, contends that some World Bank activities - such as structural

adjustment loans to developing nations that may fund logging

operations - would fall outside the new forest policy, and can be

very damaging ecologically. Last month, when two members of the group

dangled a banner reading "World Bank: Don't Destroy Old Growth"

inside a Washington DC building where World Bank President James

Wolfensohn was holding a press conference, activist Jaya Remis

complained that the Bank's proposed policy would "strip protection

for the world's remaining forests."

However, Francis Putz, an ecologist at the University of Florida and

a leading advocate of sustainable logging, reacted very differently

to the World Bank plan, saying he was "genuinely impressed" with the

new proposal. "While I always have some reservations about big donors

and big projects, I am pleased that the World Bank is going to

support efforts to make forest management compatible with

conservation and rural development," he said. He also asserted that

the Bank's plan is "loaded with safeguards" and will not fund logging

without first establishing strong ties to local communities,

environmental groups, and other stakeholders.

A former environmental advisor to the World Bank, Thomas Lovejoy,

echoes these views. "I agree that the World Bank's activities need to

be closely monitored," said Lovejoy, who is President of the Heinz

Center for Science, Economics and the Environment. "Logging is a

complex issue, but if we can't make tropical forests benefit local

people and be commercially valuable, then many could just end up

cleared and burned."

Lovejoy also feels that the World Bank is striving to learn from its

past mistakes and to develop good plans to promote sustainable

logging. The current approach, he said, is to advance with caution

and to recognize that "the devil is in the details."

While conservationists and logging advocates debate the wisdom of the

new World Bank plan, they agree about one thing: The success or

failure of tropical logging as a sustainable-development activity

could have an enormous impact on rainforest ecosystems worldwide.

According to Putz, one's position in the debate may ultimately "come

down to whether or not you trust the World Bank, for which strong

arguments can be made on either side."

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Networked by Forests.org, Inc., gbarry@forests.org