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24-Aug-2005
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Sonny Inbaraj
BANGKOK, Aug 5 (IPS) - The World Bank stands
accused of recommending to the Cambodian government that the forest
concession agreements of six companies, believed to be fronted by relatives
of Cambodia's senior politicians and their cronies, be renewed for further
25 years despite an independent review calling for their end.
A statement released by the London-based environmental watchdog Global
Witness, this week, said forest concession companies have been responsible
for much of the illegal logging in Cambodia, while abusing the rights of
forest- dependent communities.
''Persistent timber theft and tax evasion by the companies, in collusion
with corrupt officials, has seen the revenues siphoned off into private bank
accounts, rather than funding Cambodia's development,'' said the statement.
The environmental watchdog revealed that the World Bank recommending that
the Cambodian government allow renewed logging by six of the forest
concessionaires for a further 25 years.
''All six companies have breached Cambodian law or the terms of their
contracts and have demonstrated an absence of technical capacity,'' said
Global Witness Director Simon Taylor in the statement.
''Most are little more than fronts for cronies and relatives of senior
government officials. Despite this, the World Bank project has used loan
money to assist them in producing new forest management plans, which it now
argues that the Government should approve,'' added Taylor.
Global Witness identified the companies as Colexin (a joint venture between
the Cambodian government and a Japanese company); Everbright (a Chinese
state-owned company); Cherndar Plywood (a Taiwanese venture); TPP (a
Thai-owned firm); Timas Resources (a Singapore-based company) and Samraong
Wood (whose shares are nominally held by Cambodians with connections to
Timas Resources).
But the World Bank acknowledges that the forestry sector in Cambodia is
badly affected by corruption.
''Unless properly managed, it will not only fail to deliver adequate
resources to the people of the country but could actually make the poor even
worse off,'' Peter Stephens, the Bank's regional communications manager for
East Asia, based in Singapore, told IPS in an e-mail interview. ''It is for
this reason that the World Bank remains involved in the forestry sector,
though we know that there are no quick, perfect or easy solutions to the
problems,'' he added.
Stephens said the Bank is seeking ways to bring ''order, transparency and
commercial discipline to the forest concession system.''
''This approach has seen the number of concessionaires reduced from 25 to
the single digits; and the area under concession will in the end be reduced
from its original six million hectares to less than 2.4 million hectares,''
he pointed out.
The World Bank has been engaged in various aspects of the Cambodian forestry
sector since 1995. In 2000, the bank approved a 30 million U.S. dollar
Structural Adjustment Credit to help the Cambodian government institute
economic policy reforms in a range of sectors, including forestry as well as
general public administration and finance.
The International Development Association (IDA), which is part of the World
Bank Group, also, in 2000, approved a 4.8 million U.S. dollar loan for
forest concession management in Cambodia.
Global Witness has been calling for the cancellation of all forest
concession agreements in Cambodia since 1996. However, the World Bank has
pursued a policy of concessionaire reform rather than insisting on
cancellation.
A recent independent Forest Sector Review (FSR), commissioned by the
Cambodian government and international donors, to provide a road map for
forest policy in Cambodia, has recommended that the concession system be
scrapped.
The review instead proposes the development of management systems at the
community level, thus giving forest-dependent Cambodians much greater
control over their resource.
Global Witness accuses the World Bank of endorsing management plans in which
companies openly outline their intention to exclude local people from areas
of forest and to log trees over which communities have legally recognised
user rights.
But Stephens said the Bank always supported ''other initiatives'' such as
community forestry.
''We are also looking to the (Cambodian) government to take a stronger hand
in managing the sector in ways that reduce the incidence of corruption and
increase the benefits to and protection of local people,'' said the World
Bank official.
An Asian Development Bank-funded forest sector review conducted in 1999 and
released in 2000 described the forest concession system as a ''total system
failure.''
''The scenario is clear: the industry wants to cover its investment costs
rapidly and continue earning as long as the resource lasts. In permitting
this level of forest exploitation, Cambodia displays a classic example of
unwise forest resource utilisation,'' said the report.
''The country may soon turn from being a net exporter of timber to a net
importer,'' the report warned.
The money that has been made from legal and illegal logging and the
political influence that it represents is staggering in Cambodia.
The official figure, for instance, for revenue from timber sales between
January 1996 and April 1997 was less than 15 million dollars. However, the
estimated value for logs and sawed timber exported or illegally sold within
Cambodia is well over 100 million dollars for the same period.
According to environmental monitors, when the value of cut wood waiting in
stockpiles along many rural Cambodian roads is included, the figure rises by
nearly 30 million dollars.
''It is pure fantasy for the World Bank to think it could encourage the
concessionaries to practise forest management,'' Mike Davis, Global Witness'
Cambodia campaigner, told IPS in a phone interview.
''The concessionaires are not moral entities. They are crooks and
fly-by-night operators not interested in sustainable logging,'' he added.
(END/2004) |
