Sustaining Forests : A Development Strategy

Forest resources directly contribute to
the livelihoods of 90 percent of the 1.2 billion people
living in extreme poverty and indirectly support the natural
environment that nourishes agriculture and the food supplies
of nearly half the population of the developing world.
Forests also are central to growth in many developing
countries through trade and industrial development. However,
mismanagement of this resource has cost governments revenues
that exceed World Bank lending to these countries. Illegal
logging results in additional losses of at least US$10
billion to US$15 billion per year of forest resources from
public lands. If captured by governments, these losses could
support expenditures in education and health that will
exceed current development assistance to these sectors.
Forests also are central to maintaining the environmental
commons. Nearly 90 percent of terrestrial biodiversity is
found in the world's forests, with a disproportionate
share in the forests of developing countries. Most of the
carbon emissions of developing countries come from
deforestation, which accounts for between 10 and 30 percent
of global carbon emissions. Growing forests are a valuable
resource not just for their timber and biodiversity values
but also for their prospective value if a global market
emerges for the sequestering of carbon from forests. A
Forest Strategy for the Bank that can make an effective
contribution to poverty reduction and environmental
management is central to achieving the Millennium
Development Goals (MDG). These goals include increasing
school enrollment, reducing child and maternal mortality,
expanding health services, eliminating gender disparities,
and improving environmental management for sustainable
development. This publication is accompanied by a CD
containing background materials on how the World Bank's
Forests Strategy was developed, including the stakeholder
consultative process, as well as information on the role of
forests in poverty reduction, economic development, and the
provision of environmental services that helped to shape the
strategy. World Bank safeguard policies relevant to forests
and a short video highlighting the strategy's
objectives are also included in the CD. The Appendixes,
Notes, Boxes, Figures and Tables are included as Volume 2.