Resource information
This case study is one of six
evaluations of the implementation of the World Bank's
1991 Forest Strategy. This and the other cases (Brazil,
Cameroon, China, Costa Rica, and India) complement a review
of the entire set of lending and nonlending activities of
the World Bank Group and the Global Environment Facility. A
review of World Bank assistance to Indonesia in the forest
sector since 1991 faces two challenges. The first is
maintaining a distinction between an assessment based on
quick solutions to outstanding problems and one based on
long-term underlying objectives and historical facts, and
how they shaped government and Bank actions toward
Indonesia's forests until 1997. The second challenge is
to assess the performance of the Bank's 1991 Forest
Strategy in a situation where, despite largely adopting the
principles that its strategy espouses, the Bank has been
unable to influence the rate of destruction of natural
forests. Following a brief discussion of the background and
context to the current forest sector situation in Indonesia,
this review is divided into two parts. The first part
presents the state of the forests and the forest sector and
identifies the pressures on forests and the key issues. The
second part assesses the Bank's involvement in the
sector and concludes with the main findings of the review.
