The World Bank in the forest
The current FPIRS process seems to be coming out with a number of ideas for the future Bank’s approach to forests, some of which clearly expressed while others underlying though (Read More)
Bulletin Issue 31 – February 2000
THE FOCUS OF THIS ISSUE: The World Bank
The World Bank is currently embarked in a process to review the implementation of its 1991 Forest Policy, while simultaneously trying to develop a new forest strategy. Within that process, the Bank has organized a series of consultations, among which eight regional and one country (Brazil) consultations, open to civil society organizations.
Much of the consultation will be based on the findings of the Bank’s Operations Evaluation Department (OED), which carried out six country studies (Brazil, Cameroon, China, Costa Rica, India and Indonesia), all of which served as the basis for its main report. It is therefore crucial that participants at the consultations analyse critically those documents, in order to ensure their full and informed participation in the process. At the same time, there are many more people interested either on the Bank’s activities or on forests, which will not be attending the consultations. In order to facilitate participation and input from participants and non-participants, the WRM decided to focus this bulletin entirely on the issue, providing both our viewpoint and summaries of all the OED findings. At the same time, we created a specific area within our web page, to facilitate access to further information (including the full texts of the OED studies) and opinion on the process
( http://www.wrm.org.uy/english/tropical_forests/WorldBank.html ).
Whatever view one might have about the positive or negative role that the World Bank can have on people and the environment -particularly forests- one cannot ignore that the Bank is a major player within the current globalized scenario. In consequence, we decided to play a role in trying to positively influence this major actor, and this bulletin is aimed at that. We sincerely hope it may serve that purpose.
OURVIEWPOINT
WORLD BANK’S FOREST POLICY REVIEW
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World bank’s forest policy review
What follows are summaries of the OED main report and of the six country studies which the OED carried out as part of the FPIRS process. In the summaries, we (Read More)
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Cameroon: Forest sector development in a difficult political economy
The OED report considers that even if the Bank influenced the ongoing process of forest policy reform in Cameroon, it “made no provisions for implementation or enforcement of those provisions”. (Read More)
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China: From afforestation to povery alleviation and natural forest management
The World Bank’s work in China’s forest and forest-related sectors is portrayed as highly successful by the report, though including a number of recommendations for future work to address some (Read More)
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India: Alleviating poverty through participatory development
The Report considers that since most of the post-1991 projects in India have not been completed, it is not possible to evaluate them. Nevertheless, it points out that implementation progress (Read More)
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Indonesia: The challenges of World Bank involvement in forests
The OED Report starts by highlighting that the so called “Indonesian miracle” was the result of an export-led strategy in which forest resources were viewed “as an asset to be (Read More)
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Brazil: Forests in the balance: Challenges of conservation and development
The importance of a review on the implementation of the Bank’s 1991 Forest Policy in Brazil hardly needs to be stressed, given that the country contains almost 27 percent of (Read More)
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Costa Rica: Forest policy and the evolution of land use
The OED study on Costa Rica appears to be more focused in showing the achievements of the Costa Rican government and in supporting its policies than in evaluating the World (Read More)
PLANTATIONS CAMPAIGN
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The plantation issue in the OED report
The World Bank is apparently willing to play a major role in the promotion of tree plantations. This can mean good or bad news, depending on the type of plantations (Read More)