Vital Forest Graphics

Logging and corruption

0ver 20%

0ver 50%

0

West and Central Africa

Economic

Indonesia

Russia

Other Latin America

Other Asia

China

Brazil

Acceding EU

5

Malaysia

(WWF) in the Alliance for Forest Con- servation & Sustainable Use (Forest Alliance). In 2005, the Forest Alliance agreed to devote resources to reducing deforestation by 10 per cent by 2010 (WWF 2005). At the same time the World Bank has also been strongly crit- icized for funding forest projects that contribute to deforestation (Rainforest Foundation 2005; The Ecologist 2007). Conserving forests has become a key weapon in the fight to reduce carbon emissions and slow climate change. According to the Intergov- ernmental Panel on Climate Change In recent years, as awareness of forest ecosystem services has grown, economic incentives have been increasingly used to promote forest conservation

Japan

USA

EU-15

NB: The size of the circles represents the volume of suspect roundwood, including imports.

Canada

High Corruption (Transparency International)

10

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80%

-10

High Percent Suspicious Log Supply

Source : World Bank 2006b.

: espite the acknowledged impor- tance of forests, government incentives have traditionally supported logging and the conversion of forests for agricultural purposes. Most for- est nations have encouraged domestic forest operations by providing a com- bination of incentives including free or under-valued land rents, grants for harvesting, infrastructure and trans- port, interest-free loans, tax breaks and agricultural resettlement programmes (WRI 1988; OECD 2002). According to one estimate, some US$2 billion were granted each year in subsidies to industrial forest plantations. This is four times greater than the annual development assistance given to forest conservation (White 2006). Yet government backed incen- tives aimed at conserving forests are increasing. In 1997, Costa Rica, rec- ognizing the benefits that forest eco- system services provide to society as a whole, began paying landowners to conserve or increase forest areas. The programme has helped restore much of Costa Rica’s forest cover and is aid- ing the fight against poverty. A number of international environmental organ-

izations, including The Nature Con- servancy and Conservation Interna- tional, have used trust and estate laws to encourage gifts and bequests of land for conservation purposes. Conserv- ation income tax credits and other tax incentives are also becoming increas- ingly popular in the United States and Europe (Shine 2005). Through its loan policies and pro- grammes, the World Bank has also played a significant role in forest con- servation. In 2005 the World Bank announced it would extend its part- nership with the World Wildlife Fund

When forest conversion is profitable...

)YHaPS

0UKVULZPH

<: KVSSHY WLY OH

<: KVSSHY WLY OH

3HYNL ZJHSL VPS WHST

;YLL WSHU[H[PVUZ

6UL VMM ;PTILY OHY]LZ[PUN

/PNO `PLSK PUKLWLUKLU[ VPS WHST

:V`ILHUZ

)LLM JH[[SL TLKP\T

:\WWVY[LK NYV^LYZ VPS WHST

)LLM JH[[SL ZTHSS ZJHSL

3V^ `PLSK PUKLWLUKLU[ VPS WHST

SHYNL ZJHSL

7LYYLUPHSZ IHUHUHZ

9PJL MHSSV^

6UL VMM ;PTILY OHY]LZ[PUN

:THSS OVSKLY Y\IILY

*HZZH]H TVUV J\S[\YL

4HUPVJ 9PJL

+HPY`

:V\YJL! .YPLN .YHU

56 VITAL FOREST GRAPHICS