Skip to main content

World Bank accused of razing Congo forests | Environment | Th...

Popularity Report

Total Popularity Score: 0
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...

Rank

Groups (1)

  • quorum

    Quorum

    7 members,199 bookmarks

    This is a group for all of us who are already online and using diigo and enjoying anthropology and curious about the world, where it is and where it´s going. Based around, but not limited to, students (current and former) and professors from Kansas State and in the Manhattan, KS area.

Bookmark History

Saved by 2 people (0 private), first by anonymouse user on 2007-10-04


Public Sticky notes

The World Bank encouraged foreign companies to destructively log the world's second largest forest, endangering the lives of thousands of Congolese Pygmies, according to a report on an internal investigation by senior bank staff and outside experts. The report by the independent inspection panel, seen by the Guardian, also accuses the bank of misleading Congo's government about the value of its forests and of breaking its own rules.

Highlighted by abo46n2

The World Bank encouraged foreign companies to destructively log the world's second largest forest, endangering the lives of thousands of Congolese Pygmies, according to a report on an internal investigation by senior bank staff and outside experts. The report by the independent inspection panel, seen by the Guardian, also accuses the bank of misleading Congo's government about the value of its forests and of breaking its own rules.

Congo's rainforests are the second largest in the world after the Amazon, locking nearly 8% of the planet's carbon and having some of its richest biodiversity. Nearly 40 million people depend on the forests for medicines, shelter, timber and food.

Highlighted by fred1st

· An area of 600,000 square kilometres (232,000 square miles) of forest was earmarked for logging companies.

· The bank failed to address critical social and environmental issues.

Highlighted by abo46n2

It ignored between 250,000 and 600,000 Pygmies believed to be living in the Congolese forests, even though their presence was well known and documented.

Highlighted by abo46n2

Criticism is made of the forestry reforms that the bank imposed in return for loans of more than $450m. Initially, said the panel, "the bank provided [to the government] estimates of export revenue from logging concessions that turned out to be far too high. This encouraged a focus on reform of the forestry system at the expense of pursuing sustainable uses of forests, the potential for community forests and for conservation.

Highlighted by abo46n2

In a scathing analysis of the bank's economic reasoning, the panel said the bank had "distorted the real economic value of the country's forests" by looking solely at the tax and revenue that increased industrial logging might generate. "There seems to have been little action to support alternative uses of the forest resources," it said.

Highlighted by abo46n2

The panel travelled deep into the forest to take evidence from the Pygmy communities, who told it they were not consulted before the bank launched its wide-ranging forestry reforms.

Highlighted by abo46n2

Readers (2)