THE AGE http://www.theage.com.au/news/20000531/A27709-2000May30.html World logging bribe claims suppressed By PAUL BROWN LONDON Wednesday 31 May 2000 A devastating report on the destruction of tropical forests by multinational companies has been suppressed for three years by the European Commission and the World Wide Fund for Nature. The report names companies prepared to bribe and bully their way into lucrative logging concessions. It also blames the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for inducing countries to sell their forests for a quick cash return to pay off debts to Western countries. The European Commission, which paid $300,000 for the research, feared repercussions if it named names and requested a second version with the names deleted - but even this version was watered down. A third version still makes it clear that European Union funds being poured into developing countries to ensure forests are carefully managed are frequently wasted. Forest laws are enacted but no action taken. The well-respected authors from the World Resources Institute and WWF said they were so disturbed by what they found that they recommended a moratorium on all further logging in 11 countries in the South Pacific rim, Africa, and the Caribbean rim. They said the ban should last until bribery scandals had been investigated and proper environmental standards enforced. They also recommended an end to EU aid until these issues were addressed - but no action has been taken. The report says: "The new investments by Asian multinational companies have been concentrated in countries with generally weak or outdated environmental and social laws and little enforcement capacity. The governments of these countries are easy pickings to foreign investors as they have weak forest services, poor monitoring capacity, inefficient tax collection and auditing capacity, and, in some cases, widespread bribery and corruption. "Many of the countries are suffering severe economic difficulties with large foreign debts, high inflation and unemployment. In the majority of countries studied, decision-making is controlled by a small group of powerful people or clans within the government that look at primary forests of their country as a short-term source of personal revenue, not as a productive ecosystem which can generate social, economic and ecological benefits in the long term for the entire country and its people." The Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Cameroon and Belize were named as suffering large-scale corruption. "In some countries administrative procedures facilitate widespread corruption. Senior officials in countries such as Papua New Guinea have been shown to be taking decisions to award logging rights in exchange for bribes." The report says that although European companies have in the past indulged in bad practices, the scale of the new incursions was much larger. The logging companies frequently have violent clashes with local people and native tribes. It blames the main donors to these countries - the World Bank, Japan, the EU, France, Germany, Britain and the US - for failing to enforce their own rules to promote forest conservation and responsible management. In fact, the World Bank and IMF make things worse by imposing monetary reform on those countries, the report says. They are urged to let in multinational companies and governments are encouraged to sell their forests for cash to repay debts. The original report was completed in 1997 and the EU cleared a twice-revised version for publication, printing 5000 copies. Its press launch last July was blocked by the WWF. It feared some of the governments, particularly Malaysia, would close down WWF offices. A weaker version of the report was prepared and 2000 copies printed by the WWF . GUARDIAN ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
