The Rainforests of Cameroon - PROFOR

146 Appendix 4Small-scale domestic interests have the alternative of pursuing harvestingrights through community and local council forests.Would assigning more weight to technical capacity improve the selectionof “good” operators and improve forest management? The evaluation ofthe financial offer is objective by nature, but the evaluation of technicalcapacity (which includes the investments that firms promise to make toensure good forest management) is obviously more subjective and hasthe potential to introduce vested interests into the selection process. Theindependent observer seems to have acknowledged this risk in statingthat a “stable doctrine” (in other words, a clear set of criteria) was neededto assess technical capacity. Clearly the evaluation of technical capacitycan result in contradictory and unreliable outcomes, even if technicalcapacity is evaluated without interference. In the absence of a body tomonitor whether concession holders fulfill their commitments to investin technical capacity, sanctions for noncompliance (for example, fines orthe loss of the concession), and an administrative commission to assesstechnical capacity (rather than the competing firm itself), it would appearthat assigning more weight to technical capacity would simply increasecorruption and abuse.Delivered by The World Bank e-library to:The World BankIP : 192.86.100.34Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:06:18(c) The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank