Bank Book Is Practical Guide to Sustainable Development of Forests

Forests Sourcebook

Slideshow: Forests

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Reports

• Timber Theft Prevention
• Forest Reform in India
• Managing Forests in Europe & N. Asia
• Forestry in Africa

• Hundreds of millions of people depend on global resource.
• ‘Burning issues’ remain unresolved.
• ‘How to’ advice is based on Bank’s action-oriented forest strategy.

April 21, 2008 – Forests Sourcebook, a practical guide on how to manage and use the world’s shrinking forests while reducing the poverty of the hundreds of millions of people who depend on them, has been published by the World Bank.

The Sourcebook, aimed at both policy makers and on-the-ground practitioners, says that forests  can meet sometimes competing demands associated with “sustainable development.”  With the right combination of policies and practices, the book says, forests can:

• Promote economic growth through conservation-based logging and other commercial activities.
• Reduce poverty by empowering rural people to participate in what happens to forest resources.
• Protect indigenous peoples -- who are totally dependent on forests – by ensuring they are consulted and involved in managing forests.
• Continue to store millions of tons of carbon that would otherwise increase global warming, a major contributor to climate change.

The Sourcebook says forests, which occupy 24 percent of the earth, 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 book says. 

The Sourcebook‘s practical advice is based on the World Bank’s current forest strategy, “Sustaining Forests,” which was published in 2004.  The strategy, in contrast to its predecessors, charts an action-oriented approach combining use of forests for economic development, poverty reduction, and environmental protection.  It seeks to “link local needs with the global forest agenda,” and says that objective “will require reinforced collaboration between civil society, the private sector, governments, and donors,” including the World Bank.

“What was lacking was ‘how’ to do this,” said Diji Chandrasekharan Behr, a Natural Resources Economist with the World Bank, who was the main editor.  “The Sourcebook provides that guidance.”

The handbook says forests “provide a tremendous source of natural capital that can be used to alleviate poverty.”  It describes the pluses and minuses of Bank-supported community programs in countries like India and Mexico that seek to promote a balanced use of forest resources while improving the livelihoods of local people. 

In a “lessons learned” section on community-based programs, the handbook stresses that “bureaucracy and paper work…should be limited” and “solid feasibility studies and business plans need to be in place.”

The Sourcebook also offers detailed, experienced-based suggestions on how Bank staff can help “mainstream” forests into country assistance programs.  Under “lessons learned,” it says: “Equitable participation hinges on identification of key stakeholder groups, support to stakeholder self-organization, and capacity building; communication and participation must be kept transparent and nonconfrontational.”

Co-author Augusta Molnar, one of the book’s non-Bank collaborators – she is Director of Communities and Markets at the Washington-based nonprofit Rights and Resources Initiative -- said one of the “key trends” of the book is “recognition of indigenous and other community-based rights.”

She identified “burning issues” that remain unresolved:

Gerhard Dieterle, Adviser in the Bank’s Agriculture and Rural Development unit and one of the authors and editors, said one of the volume’s “strong motivations” was the US$50 billion annual losses in global forest resources through illegal activities.   The grand total of outside forest assistance, including the World Bank’s, is only US$1.7 billion, he said.