Forests Sourcebook - HCV Resource Network

Figure 6
Regional Distribution of IBRD/IDA Lending,
2001–05
SAR
20%
SSA
19%
poverty, contribute to economic development, and preserve
environmental values. Governments do not always make
forestry a policy priority or seek Bank support, and in some
instances analytical work that might have provided a
framework for integrating forest issues into planning and
policy making has been lacking or insufficient. The related
analytical work has been highly variable and offers
opportunity for improvement.
MENA
9%
LAC
15%
in Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador,
Honduras, Nicaragua, and Peru concern the creation
and management of protected areas with an emphasis on
indigenous and local community participation and forest
management.
See figure 6 for a regional breakdown of lending over
2001–05.
PROGRESS TO DATE
ECA
11%
EAP
26%
In 2006 the World Bank commissioned an independent
midterm review of the Forests Strategy implementation
(Contreras-Hermosilla and Simula 2007). The review found
that the World Bank has made substantial progress on all
fronts outlined in the strategy. Yet the strategy has been only
partially implemented in the four years since its adoption.
Some of its main achievements follow.
Mainstreaming of the strategy. The World Bank has
sought to manage the effects of macroeconomic policy and
sector programs on forest resources. Some countries have
incorporated forest sector reforms into their Poverty
Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP). The Bank has supported
these within the framework of CAS in countries like
Cameroon, and through forest investment projects in such
countries as Albania, Croatia, Romania, and Russia. The
World Bank has also supported policy changes through DPLs,
again for example, in Cameroon. In many other countries,
however, forests have not been properly considered in the
CAS or DPL, even in cases where doing so was clearly
warranted by the size of the sector or its potential to alleviate
Successful extension to nontropical forests has
extended its engagement to nontropical forests, including
those in China, Georgia, Romania, the Russian Federation,
and Turkey. It has also supported timber production
activities in tropical moist forests in countries such as
Cambodia, Cameroon, and Mexico. The integration of
forest components into natural-resource and rural
development programs has intensified in countries like
Albania, Gabon, and Guatemala. The World Bank has also
broadened its focus on forestry with new instruments, such
as independent certification. It has also expanded the scope
of its interventions to account for the impacts on forests of
policies in other sectors, such as trade.
Despite these accomplishments, the World Bank’s overall
level of engagement has thus far remained insufficient for
achieving the targets set in the Forests Strategy. IBRD and
IDA lending volumes increased only slowly, regaining and
then stabilizing at levels comparable to volumes before the
adoption of the strategy. Overall World Bank involvement
in natural tropical forests operations remains modest and is
often surrounded by intense controversy. In many cases the
relative dearth of self-standing forest projects reflects the
lack of priority that clients assign to investing in forests or
to introducing forest sector reforms.
Poverty reduction. Poverty reduction objectives, a pillar of
the strategy as well as fundamental to the World Bank’s
overall mission, have been appropriately included in forest
investments in a number of countries, including Albania,
Gabon, and Nicaragua. In many other countries, however,
poverty and the effects of forest interventions on forestdependent
people have not received adequate attention,
either in the World Bank’s analytical work or in its lending
program.
Other key achievements include the following:
■
Strengthening forest sector governance and transparency.
World Bank activities have created a political climate for
high-level regional discussions on improvement in gov-
INTRODUCTION: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN THE FOREST SECTOR 9