The World Bank is considering lifting its ban on direct financing of logging in primary moist tropical forests, encapsulated in its 1991 Forest Policy.
Forests
Environment
News
IFC reviews social and environmental policies
The policies that govern the International Finance Corporation’s approach to core social and environmental issues are currently under review.
Environment
News
Vietnam mangrove forests
The World Bank’s role in damaging or endangering the mangrove forests of Vietnam (and their inhabitants) has been the subject of an article and exchange of letters in the Bulletin of the World Rainforest Movement.
Environment
News
Call to cease forestry lending overruled
The Centre for Environmental Law and Community Rights (CELCOR) in Papua New Guinea filed, in early December, a claim to the World Bank inspection panel after illegal logging made some 300 landowners “lose their land and forests through bad forest governance”.
Infrastructure
News
New report on Global Public Goods
A new study for the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs by the UK-based Institute of Development Studies contains case studies on financing mechanisms for biodiversity conservation, climate change abatement, peace and security, HIV/AIDS research and financial stability.
Environment
News
Coal India problems inspected
The World Bank’s Inspection Panel has visited India in response to a claim filed against the Bank’s Coal India loans.
Environment
News
New briefings on Bank policy revisions
Forest Peoples’ Programme has produced three new briefings on World Bank policy reformulation processes.
Environment
News
Bank forest policy process crash
In early January a meeting was held in Washington to discuss the latest World Bank forest strategy.
Conditionality
News
No more lending without forestry reforms
In January, local and international NGOs wrote to the World Bank demanding actions to achieve genuine forest reform in Papua New Guinea (PNG).
Environment
News
PNG forest moratorium in question
The moratorium on issuing new logging concessions in Papua New Guinea is possibly under threat.
Featured briefings
3 July 2024
The Bretton Woods Observer: Summer 2024
3 July 2024
Is the World Bank rolling back commitments to citizen engagement, again?
Understanding the Bank’s chequered history with public, community and civil society participation is key for understanding what is at stake and what to do next.
3 June 2024
A way out for IMF reform
New paper analyses the IMF 16th Quota Review and identifies key governance reforms feasible in the current economic and geopolitical context.