Brazil - Forests in the Balance : Challenges of Conservation with Development

Lele, Uma ; Viana, Virgilio ; Verissimo, Adalberto ; Vosti, Stephen ; Perkins, Karin ; Husain, Syed Arif

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: AGRICULTURE;    AGROFORESTRY;    BIODIVERSITY;    BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION;    CARBON;   

DOI  :  10.1596/0-8213-4761-6
RP-ID  :  20788

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This case study is one of sixevaluations of the implementation of the World Bank's1991 Forest Strategy. This and the other cases (Cameroon,China, Costa Rica, India, and Indonesia) complement a reviewof the entire set of lending and nonlending activities ofthe World Bank Group and the Global Environment Facility.The World Bank has clearly diminished its lending presencein the Amazon in the past decade. It has moved from the"big projects" era of the 1960s through the 1980sand strong economic and sector work to a more carefulapproach at the end of the century with attempts once againto focus on strategic issues and smaller projects, includingpilot activities. This seems due both to the poorperformance of earlier projects-which prompted a morerisk-adverse Bank strategy following the intenseinternational scrutiny and criticism contributing to thecautious approach urged by the 1991 Forest Strategy-and to alack of demand in Brazil for Bank funds. Brazil'smacroeconomic difficulties-its balance of payments andfiscal deficits-have led the government to be selective aswell as to shift lending to quick-disbursing activities.This is evident in the most recent land reform programs.Controlling deforestation is not easy given the large numberand level of national and global forces and actors affectingit. If the Bank is to be a facilitator for balancing theneeds of stakeholders (i.e., the poor and the indigenouspeople) and national and global interests, it must be seenas an objective bystander. The 1991 Forest Strategyemphasizes the primacy of the rights of the indigenouspeople-and by implication their rights have primacy overthose of the local poor. But the Bank cannot be afacilitator unless it is viewed by both parties as notserving the interests of only one party.