Download Report - Independent Evaluation Group - World Bank

Summary
Brazil contains some 3.7 million km 2 of tropical moist forest—almost
27 percent of the remaining global stock. Its tropical forest endowment
and its importance to global biodiversity are unparalleled in
the world. Brazil is also the world’s largest consumer of tropical wood
products and consumes about 86 percent of its own production. Further,
Brazil has been one of the World Bank’s largest borrowers, with
loans totaling US$9.3 billion between 1992 and 1999 (average US$1.2
billion/year), although relative to Brazil’s annual GNP of US$760 billion,
this sum is still a small amount.
The environmental aspects of the World Bank’s lending to Brazil in
the 1980s were assessed in OED’s seminal 1992 study, World Bank
Approaches to the Environment in Brazil: A Review of Selected Projects
(Redwood 1992). This report, among others, shaped the World Bank’s
thinking on primary tropical forests, including its 1991 Forest Strategy.
Bank studies, however, have had little impact on Brazil’s forest policies
until recently. The future of the Amazon continues to be debated, while
other Brazilian forests are more threatened and need urgent attention.
The debate over the future of the Amazon, in light of Brazil’s 500th
anniversary, was vigorous at the time of this review’s publication. The
National Environment Council (CONOMA) approved the proposal of
a forestry law in March 2000, which was to be presented to the National
Congress by the Ministry of Environment. This draft law resulted
from numerous meetings attended by organizations representing an array
of stakeholder groups. Earlier, a congressional committee had presented
an alternative version of this legislation to the Ministry. The
xix