Download Report - Independent Evaluation Group - World Bank

Introduction
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Brazil contains some 3.7 million km 2 of tropical moist forest—almost
27 percent of the remaining global stock. The country’s tropical
forest endowment and its importance to global biodiversity are thus
unparalleled in the world. Brazil is also the world’s largest consumer of
tropical wood products. It has been one of the World Bank’s largest
borrowers, with loans totaling US$9.3 billion between 1992 and 1999. 2
Finally, lending, the rate of deforestation, and policy analysis in Brazil
have heavily influenced not only the World Bank’s 1991 Forest Strategy
(box 1.1) but also its lending and guidelines on environmental protection,
indigenous peoples, and involuntary resettlement (Redwood 1992).
This review will argue that, while World Bank learning and policy
analysis has shaped Bank policy in the forest sector, it has had limited
influence in Brazil until recently. The situation may now be changing.
Endowed with abundant forest resources and competing demands on
resources for development, the state and provincial governments, ranchers,
and loggers have viewed forests and land conversion as sources of
income and employment to be exploited for profit rather than preserved.
The Government of Brazil has been too preoccupied with other pressing
domestic economic and political issues to translate its environmental concerns
into a concrete, actionable program. And when there are tradeoffs
between immediate income or financial benefits to state and local actors
and long-term environmental benefits to the nation that are difficult to
detect and that either require fiscal resources or sacrificing revenues, the
Government of Brazil has opted for the former. The government has also
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