World Rainforest Movement
THE FOCUS OF THIS ISSUE: INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
Forest destruction does not simply happen. A web of actors and policies can always be identified as responsible for initiating processes leading to deforestation and forest degradation. Prominent among those actors are International Financial Institutions which promote and make possible activities which result in massive forest loss and in the violation of the rights of forest and forest-dependent peoples. However, the negative role of these institutions is not easily perceived by the general public, as their loans and policies are presented under the disguise of “development assistance”. For that reason, the World Rainforest Movement and Friends of the Earth International decided to produce a joint bulletin on this issue, aimed at shedding some light over the obscure dealings of these institutions. We hope that the articles below will contribute to that aim.
Until the 1950s, countries were just that: countries. During the US presidency of Harry Truman, countries were classified into “developed” and “underdeveloped”, depending on how close or distant they were (Read More)
Development can provide –indeed, it does– great opportunities for corporations eager to profit from business in so-called “developing” countries. International Financial Institutions (IFIs) have proved to be extremely good instruments (Read More)
Let us make no mistake. When the IMF talks about a “favourable environment,” it is referring to business, to a favourable environment for direct foreign investment through operations on the (Read More)
New policies, old problems. Ever since the 1970s, the World Bank has struggled to define an approach to forests, which reconciles its expressed commitment to poverty alleviation with its model (Read More)
Since it was founded in 1956, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) has committed more than US$44 billion of its own funds and arranged a further US$23 billion in loans for (Read More)
Globalisation, a corporate-led process across the world, has had immense negative social and environmental impacts, particularly in the Third World. Though the huge commercial forces behind globalization have tried to (Read More)
Founded in 1966, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) claims to be “dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific”. The Bank’s lending to the forestry sector indicates that in (Read More)
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) does not have a specific forest policy or sector strategy, as they claim they have covered forests in other policy and strategy documents, including those (Read More)
Financial deliberations generally take place between dubious actors in obscure corners of the political arena. This is definitely the case with the European Investment Bank, which has only recently been (Read More)
When the World Bank approved US$270 million in grants and guarantees for the controversial one thousand megawatt Nam Theun 2 (NT2) hydroelectric dam in Laos on 31 March of this (Read More)
Camisea is the greatest energy project in the history of Peru. This project involves the extraction of natural gas in an area known as Lot 88, located on both sides (Read More)
Uruguay is in the sights of the pulp industry. The Finnish multinational company, Metsa Botnia and the Spanish company Ence are proposing to install two pulp mills to produce bleached (Read More)
“The worst immorality is a studied ignorance, a purposeful refusal to see or know” (Andrea Dworkin) ‘Development’ and International Financial Institutions (IFIs) together with the main decision makers within them, (Read More)