Global Policy Forum

Exercepts From The Gallon Environment Letter

Continuing, the World Wildlife Fund for Nature report on worldwide logging activities, "blamed the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for inducing forested countries to sell their forests for a quick cash return to pay off debts to Western countries." It found that, "European Unions funds being poured into developing countries to ensure forests are carefully managed are frequently wasted. Forest laws were enacted, but no enforced." It reported that, "the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Cameroon and Belize were all named as suffering large scale corruption." This corruption allowed the Asian logging firms to bribe their way into clear cutting protected forests, national parks, and conservation zones." The report found that, "the majority of countries studied, the decision making is controlled by a small group of powerful people or clans within the government that look at primary forests of their country as a short term source of personal revenue."

The Guardian also said that the WWF "report adds that although European and North American companies have in the past indulged in bad practices, the scale of the new incursions was much larger (by the Asian multinationals)". Stating that, "the logging itself is often very careless with high collateral damage to the surrounding forest. The roads built to extract the timber, often hundreds of kilometres long, create access to frontier areas that facilitate the entry of commercial hunts, farmers, miners and others who cause further environmental damage. The companies frequently end up in violent clashes with local people and native tribes."

Source, "Report on Forests Suppressed", by Paul Brown, Guardian Weekly, June 1 to 7, 2000, London, U.K. Visit the website. Also, for more information contact the Rainforest Action Network, 221 Pine Street, Suite 500, San Francisco California 94104, see website

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