[stop-imf] IMF Policies Lead to Global Deforestation -- American Lands Alliance

[Robert Weissman]

Important report from American Lands Alliance. Below is release
announcing the report, followed by the executive summary. The report is
available at http://americanlands.org/imf_report.htm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 29, 2002

Contact: 	Jason Tockman, American Lands Alliance  740-594-5441
Steve Holmer, American Lands Alliance  202-547-9105

Report: IMF Policies Lead to Global Deforestation

Analysis of financial institution's loan programs exposes forest loss

REPORT AVAILABLE ONLINE AT:  http://americanlands.org/imf_report.htm

Washington, DC-American Lands Alliance today released a report detailing 
the dramatic impact that the loans and policies of the International 
Monetary Fund (IMF) are having on forests around the world. The analysis 
found IMF complicity with deforestation in 15 countries of Africa, Latin 
America and Asia, including Brazil, Indonesia, Russia, Cameroon and 
Chile.

"The IMF's formula of promoting export-led growth and foreign 
investment, while simultaneously pressuring countries to slash funding 
for environmental programs, has been a recipe for accelerated 
deforestation in more than a dozen countries," said Jason Tockman, 
director of American Lands Alliance's International Trade Program and 
author of the report.

Under "structural adjustment programs" or SAPs, the IMF demands that 
client countries undertake a series of policy changes as a precondition 
for agency loans sought by countries seeking to avoid defaulting on debt 
payments to international lenders. Through these SAPs, the IMF has 
effectively realigned global economic relationships into an integrated, 
investor-friendly system. As detailed in IMF: Funding Deforestation, the 
forests of many countries have been devastated by these policies.

Excerpts from IMF: Funding Deforestation:		

·	 "The record shows that funding for environmental programs has been 
hampered by the significant cuts in government spending imposed by the 
IMF."

·	"Displacement of communities, devaluation of certain currencies, 
elimination of social services, and other IMF-driven downward pressures 
on the living standards of the poor have caused increased incursion into 
forests for the extraction of resources for survival, including wood for 
fuel and homes."

·	"The IMF prioritizes economic liberalization measures over key social 
and environmental objectives."

The report recommends a series of steps to reverse the IMF's negative 
impact on world forest resources, including the abandonment of the 
policies that are linked to deforestation, adoption of environmentally 
sensitive guiding principles, and assessments of the environmental 
impacts of loan programs. Greater transparency, debt cancellation for 
poor countries, attention to the issues of illegal logging and poaching, 
and elimination of government subsidies linked to forest loss are also 
called for in the report.

Countries analyzed in IMF: Funding Deforestation: Brazil, Cameroon, 
Central African Republic, Chile, Ecuador, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, 
Indonesia, Ivory Coast/Cote d'Ivoire, Madagascar, Nicaragua, 
Papua New Guinea, Russia, Tanzania


==^================================================================


Executive Summary

 International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans and policies have caused
extensive deforestation in each of the 15 countries of Africa, Latin
America, and Asia studied in this report. This forest loss has occurred
both directly, through the IMF’s promotion of foreign investment in
natural resource sectors, and austerity measures that cut spending on
environmental programs; and indirectly, through programs that have
unwittingly worsened the conditions of poverty, and by the IMF’s
insistence upon export-oriented economic growth.

Through "structural adjustment programs" (SAPs), the IMF influences
countries’ economic policies and practices by conditioning loans upon
the acceptance of a series of trade and investment liberalization
measures. Along with its partners—most notably the World Bank and the
World Trade Organization—the IMF has been instrumental in promoting a
regime of privatization, deregulation, foreign investment, and
export-oriented growth. Through these policies, the IMF imposes a
one-size-fits-all prescription, allegedly for the purpose of economic
growth by increasing developing countries’ access to hard currency.
However, while meeting development objectives has proven elusive in most
IMF client countries, the overall effect of these policies on forests
globally has been devastating.

Although the architects of corporate globalization claim that trade and
investment liberalization is the best strategy for improvements in
environmental protection, the record shows that funding for
environmental programs has been hampered by the significant cuts in
government spending imposed by the IMF. Government spending on important
environmental programs has been substantially reduced in Brazil,
Nicaragua, Guyana, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Indonesia, Tanzania, and
Cameroon. IMF-induced budget cuts have impeded the following activities:
* Promotion of responsible forestry and sustainable development
* Enforcement of forest and wildlife protection measures
* Prevention of mining disasters
* Demarcation of indigenous lands

Additionally, inadequate funding for regulatory agencies has created
conditions for:
* Widespread illegal logging, including in national parks and protected reserves
* Corruption in regulatory schemes
* The inability to respond rapidly to natural disasters
* Extensive poaching of imperiled species

Long-term economic prosperity must be based on sustainable development
patterns. Instead the IMF prioritizes economic liberalization measures
over key social and environmental objectives. The IMF’s primary economic
liberalization mechanisms have included: reducing export taxes; relaxing
mining and forestry codes; removing bans on raw log exports; offering
tax holidays to foreign firms; lifting prohibitions on foreign
investment, including land ownership; and otherwise eliminating barriers
to trade. The institution’s focus on promoting export-led growth and
foreign investment in the natural resources sectors through these
strategies has heavily impacted the world’s forests. Absent real
improvements in environmental safeguards, the IMF’s formula has been a
recipe for accelerated deforestation for the countries analyzed herein. 

IMF policies have threatened forests and wildlife indirectly through the
worsening of poverty conditions in Russia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and
Nicaragua. Through displacement of communities, devaluation of
currencies, elimination of social services, and other IMF-driven
downward pressures on the living standards of the poor, rural residents
in many countries have been forced to exploit forest resources to
fulfill their basic needs.