Forests Sourcebook - HCV Resource Network

■
Protecting vital local and global environmental services
and values
Addressing these three pillars together makes the Forests
Strategy complex and multifaceted. It not only concerns
growing or protecting trees but also involves a complex
interaction of policy, institutions, and incentives. The strategy
embodies a multisectoral approach that addresses crosssectoral
issues and takes into account the impacts of activities,
policies, and practices outside the sector on forests and
people who depend on forests for their livelihoods.
The 2002 Forests Strategy and operational policy marked
a shift from outright prohibition of World Bank financing
of commercial logging operations in primary tropical moist
forests to an approach of improved forest management with
targeted conservation of critical natural habitats in all types
of forests. The new approach embodies explicit safeguards
that require World Bank–financed investment operations to
comply with independent certification standards acceptable
to the World Bank.
Harnessing the potential of forests to reduce
poverty. Forest outcomes are crucial for poverty reduction
in many of the World Bank’s client countries. For both
countries with large forest endowments, and for others with
limited forests, if forest issues are not fully incorporated into
broad national government and assistance strategies, the
overarching goals of poverty reduction will not be met.
To harness the potential of forests to reduce poverty, conditions
must be created to ensure that the rural poor are
able to manage their natural resources, especially the forests,
for their own benefit. Capacity must be built to support and
regulate community use of forests and plantations. Forest
assets under various forms of community management,
possibly supported by the private sector, could become
major sources for global environmental services, such as
biodiversity and carbon sequestration.
Integrating forests into sustainable economic
development. Forests are one of the most mismanaged
resources in many countries. Forests are seriously
undervalued, many of their environmental benefits do not
enter markets, and poor governance has fueled illegal
activities. The rapid rates of deforestation in the last decades
are largely a result of the spillover from poor policies in other
sectors and lack of governance in the forest sector itself.
A main task, therefore, is to help governments improve
policy, economic management, and governance in the forest
sector, including forest concessions policies and allocations.
Efforts to bring about credible systems for socially, ecologically,
and economically sound management of production
forests should, however, also be coupled with systems for
independent certification and monitoring. Identification
and promotion of local, regional, and global markets for
forest products is a matching priority.
Protecting global forest values. More than 600
million hectares of protected areas have been established in
developing countries. While many of these areas are
economically inaccessible, other areas are under increasing
pressure from development and illegal activities, including
logging and poaching. Many governments do not have the
resources to effectively administer and protect these areas.
In addition, other forests, ecologically sensitive and rich in
biodiversity but outside protected areas, are under
increasing threat.
Invasive pressures are likely to worsen unless significant
additional funds can be made available from multiple
sources, at highly concessional or grant terms, for protection,
or unless effective markets for the ecosystem values of forests
can be developed. The creation of new markets for the environmental
services of forests, such as biodiversity, carbon
sequestration, and watershed protection, are essential.
The Forests Strategy course for implementation
The World Bank’s Forests Strategy charts a course for implementation
based on engaging in key countries, creating
partnerships, increasing analytical work, and improving
coordination across the World Bank Group. 2 In line with
this, the World Bank is pursuing the following:
■
■
■
Selectively engaging with forest priority countries.
Developing partnerships, such as the Global Forest Partnership,
that bring together existing and emerging partnership
arrangements—such as the World Bank-World
Wildlife Fund (WWF) Alliance, the Program on Forests
(PROFOR), and Forest Law Enforcement and Governance
(FLEG) initiatives—and that enhance coordination
among client countries, donors, international nongovernmental
organizations, research institutions, and civil society
to achieve the goals of the Forests Strategy. In the
future, the strategy will continue to rely on successful
efforts and enter into new partnerships as dictated by the
strategy and the changing development context.
Focusing on emerging opportunities for innovative
financing of forest sector activities and continuing to
facilitate concessional financing by blending Interna-
INTRODUCTION: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN THE FOREST SECTOR 5