WRI Stories Feed: Equity, Poverty, and the Environment

Maps Guide Water and Sanitation Planning in Africa

Norbert Henninger — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:49:03 -0400

State of the art GIS maps shed new light on Uganda’s development challenges.

A primary challenge for government agencies working on water and sanitation issues is coordination – planning and implementing effective interventions across multiple sectors and actors. Data is often siloed, with poverty figures kept separately from information on water access, sanitation, and hygiene.

A new report, Mapping a Healthier Future, published by the Ugandan government with the World Resources Institute, shows how new kinds of mapping can help tackle these coordination problems and lead to more effective interventions. The report compares for the first time various water and sanitation indicators, helping to identify regions and communities with the greatest need and strengthen poverty reduction efforts.

Uganda: Proportion on Households with Improved Sanitation Facilities, 2002 Geographic Information Systems (GIS) maps are valuable tools to help overcome common coordination challenges. Better information means better decisions about how to allocate resources, and a good map can literally put all parties on the same page, opening the door for more efficient, transparent decision-making.

An examination of the spatial relationships between poverty, safe drinking water, improved sanitation, and better hygiene behavior can provide new information to help craft more effective—and more evidence-based—investments and poverty reduction efforts. This kind of spatial information can also empower the public to query government priorities, advocate for alternative interventions, and demand better decision-making.

Uganda’s national policy already reflects the central role safe water and sanitation play in addressing poverty. In 2004, Uganda’s central government set ambitious national targets to increase access to clean water and sanitation to 100% in urban areas and 77% in rural districts by 2015.

So far, these investment plans have helped improve drinking water coverage in rural sub-counties, from 25 percent in the early 1990’s to 65 percent in 2009. However, work remains to be done to ensure that all areas meet national targets. That is where the new maps come in. They can help the government see which communities are lagging behind and target the areas that can benefit the most from interventions.

Combining maps with indicators such as poverty rates, unsafe drinking water sources, lack of sanitation facilities, and lack of basic necessities like soap provides a stark picture of trends and needs across the country. “Data behind the maps show a direct correlation in Uganda between a high poverty rates and low access to adequate sanitation facilities,” said Francis Runumi Mwesigye, Health Planning Commissioner at the Uganda Ministry of Heath and co-author of the report.

Photo credit: flickr/travellingtom

Improved access to clean water is essential for Uganda’s continued development. Water-related diseases, such as typhoid, cholera, and hepatitis, caused 8% of all deaths in Uganda in 2002. Young children are particularly susceptible – 17% of all deaths of children under the age of 5 are contributed to water-borne diarrheal diseases.

The Ugandan example shows what is possible for other counties who want to develop their own maps, and the kind of analysis that is possible with the right data. This report follows Mapping a Better Future, a detailed examination of the links between Uganda’s wetlands and the locations of poor communities.

Mapping a Healthier Future is the result of collaborative efforts between the Uganda Ministry of Health, the Uganda Ministry of Water and Environment, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, the International Livestock Research Institute, and the World Resources Institute.

Stopping the Resource Wars in Africa

Peter Veit — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:54:00 -0400

Two upcoming Senate bills could have a big impact on the Democratic Republic of Congo, by exposing how its 10-year conflict is being funded.

Since 1998, fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has killed an estimated 5.4 million people and resulted in some of the most horrific sexual violence the world has ever seen. Almost a million internally-displaced people are still unable to return safely to their areas of origin. Despite the nine-year presence of the world’s largest United Nations peacekeeping operation, the Mission de l’Organisation des Nations-Unies au Congo (MONUC)—18,422 personnel in 2008 at an annual cost of $1.2 billion—rebel forces continue to terrorize innocent citizens in this large central African nation, creating a dire humanitarian crisis that rivals the tragedies in Darfur and Myanmar.

The armed groups in eastern DRC are funded by the region’s abundant natural resources, especially from the extraction of tin, tantalum, and tungsten used to make laptops, cell phones, digital cameras, iPods, and video recorders. As a result, U.S. and international electronic companies—and the consumers who purchase their products—are funding this war.

Two-thirds of the people living below the poverty line reside in nations rich with extractive resources. Yet they rarely receive any meaningful benefits from their country’s resource wealth.

Two bills are now in Congress—the Congo Conflict Minerals Act and the Extractive Industries Transparency Disclosure Act. These two bills would require companies listed on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to disclose new information in their financial reporting and help ensure that such minerals do not support the conflict.

The Congo Conflict Minerals Act, introduced by Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS), Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Russ Feingold (D-WI), would require SEC-listed electronic companies, such as Apple, Nokia, and Nintendo, to disclose the exact location of the mines from which they receive their tin, tantalum, and tungsten in their regular reporting. By noting the source of their minerals, consumers will know whether the electronics they are buying are funding illegal armed groups in the DRC. As evident from the effective embargo on conflict timber from Liberia and blood diamonds from Sierra Leone, many U.S. and European consumers are sensitive to breaking the link between natural resources and conflict. Many U.S. and international companies are also concerned about their reputation and the financial risks associated with not being listed on the SEC (the SEC is a principal source of company information to potential investors).

Ending the conflict in DRC—often called “Africa’s World War” because the armies of nearly a dozen other African states have been drawn into the fighting—is a long-standing and high-priority U.S. policy objective. In October 2006, then-President George Bush argued that the conflict constitutes “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to our foreign policy and declared a national emergency. He issued an executive order to block the property of people and institutions contributing to the conflict in the DRC, including those who “have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support.” President Barack Obama’s administration has also made it clear that stopping the war in Congo a top priority of U.S. policy on Africa.

In addition to advancing U.S. interests, the Congo Conflict Minerals Act would contribute to the effective implementation of U.N. Resolution 1856. In December 2008, the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 1856—the latest in a series of resolutions on the DRC conflict—which links the “illicit trade in natural resources” with the “proliferation and trafficking of arms,” and places an embargo on illegally-exploited natural resources. It calls for the U.N. to heighten security around the mines and authorizes the peacekeeping forces to “seize or collect, as appropriate, the arms and any related material whose presence in the territory of the DRC” contributes to the conflict, including illegally-mined natural resources. Resolution 1856 also urged all countries to take appropriate steps to end the illicit trade in natural resources in the region.

The Congo Conflict Minerals Act is the most recent initiative out of Congress to break the link between natural resources and conflict. While the Act focuses on sourcing three minerals extracted from eastern DRC, another bill awaits action in Congress—the Extractive Industries Transparency Disclosure Act—which would have broader implications for the effective use of natural resource revenues around the world.

The Extractive Industries Transparency Disclosure Act was introduced by Representative Barney Frank (D-MA), Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) in the summer of 2008. It was co-sponsored by Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Tom Harkin (D-IA)and Joe Lieberman (I-CT). The bill was referred to the Committee on Urban, Banking, and Housing Affairs, but never discussed on the floor. It is, however, expected to be reintroduced shortly by the same sponsors.

The Extractive Industries Transparency Disclosure Act would require all SEC-listed companies to fully disclose the amount of money paid to foreign governments for oil, gas, and minerals—collectively called extractive resources—in their required financial statements. Around two-thirds of the people living below the poverty line reside in nations rich with extractive resources yet they rarely receive any meaningful benefits from their country’s resource wealth. This Act is an important step in ensuring sound revenue management, promoting effective reinvestments and fighting the corruption that contributes to the disjuncture between resource wealth and economic growth.

In July, President Obama traveled to Ghana for his first presidential visit to sub-Saharan Africa because the country is an outpost of democracy—a model for good governance. Ghana, a bipartisan American favorite, is also one of our most trusted partners in Africa. In a speech to the parliament, President Obama highlighted the critical role that sound governance and civil society plays in promoting lasting development. While Ghana is well-known for its gold (the country is Africa’s second largest gold producer), significant quantities of oil have recently been found offshore. Tullow Oil, an Irish company list on the SEC, holds several of the most promising deep water blocks (Tullow also holds several proven blocks in Uganda, another major U.S. ally in Africa). The Extractive Industries Transparency Disclosure Act would help ensure that some of our close allies in the continent—Africa’s new petro-states—use their oil riches in ways that promote development, not civil unrest and conflict.

The Extractive Industries Transparency Disclosure Act enjoys broad support from U.S. development professionals. Critics, however, point out that full disclosure of payments made by extractive industries to foreign governments alone will not ensure extractive resource revenues are invested in ways that support poverty reduction. Other pundits argue that the most corrupt and non-democratic regimes—those which the Extractive Industries Transparency Disclosure Act is targeting—will simply partner with companies from China, India and elsewhere and would not be affected by the Act. In fact, nearly all internationally-competitive oil, gas and mining companies are registered with the SEC and subject to the same regulations as U.S. companies.

The Act would provide a powerful platform for U.S. development assistance to work with governments around the world to ensure revenues from natural resources contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction. Indeed, the passing of these two bills should be complemented by targeted investments by the Agency for International Development, Millennium Challenge Corporation and other agencies delivering U.S. government development assistance. Based on recent research by WRI and our local partner organizations in Africa, such support should emphasize investments in two areas:

Help Governments Establish Fair Distribution Policies. The distribution of environmental benefits (and costs) is determined largely by public policies and government practices. U.S. development assistance can work with governments to develop extractive resource revenue management and distribution policies that create economic, political and other incentives in support of poverty reduction, a priority national policy objective in most developing countries. Too often, public policies favor affluent people and regions, enriching a few powerful political and economic elites while passing disproportionately large social and environmental costs on to the poor disenfranchised majority. Poverty reduction—especially for the poorest—can be greatly enhanced through policies that promote fair distribution of natural resource benefits. In high-inequity, high-poverty countries, equitable access and fair distribution can be more effective than economic growth alone in reducing poverty. Such reforms are most effective in poor countries, where natural resources dominate local economies and natural capital is particularly significant in determining the overall distribution of wealth. Even small changes in these policies can have a large effect on building the assets of the poor and reducing poverty.
Strengthen Democratic Institutions and Support Good Governance. While it is important to work with governments, especially government reformers, to establish fair environmental distribution policies, U.S. development assistance must also strengthen other centers of power which can press for such reforms and check the authority of the executive branch. Among these other power centers are the legislature, civil society organizations and citizens. In many countries, even in those that have embraced multi-party politics and hold regular elections, policy reform processes remain closed and tightly controlled by a small circle of political elites. Small wonder that many public policies do not reflect the interest of the electoral majority—the rural poor. Strengthening the legislature and civil society organizations supports the democratic principal of separation of power, and promotes oversight and accountability. Working with the popular media to educate the public on policy processes can engage citizens in government matters. Accountability requires information on institutional performance, and the power to sanction poor decisions and discipline behavior. U.S. assistance can support performance monitoring and help these actors exercise their constitutional authorities and informal powers to press government on matters regarding the management of extractive resource revenues.

It is time for the U.S. to advance its national interests and support development around the world by passing both the Congo Conflict Minerals Act and the Extractive Industries Transparency Disclosure Act.

Representing Rural Voices in Africa

Arisha Ashraf — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:44:46 -0400

A new WRI report presents new research on the importance of working with African legislatures for long-term social and environmental improvements. It finds lawmakers face enormous challenges when representing their constituents, and that the rural majority is often poorly represented. The report, found here, presents options for improving representation.

In development circles, public participation is often viewed as a “cure-all” for building local democracy. If the local people are present, permitted to pose questions to officials, and, in rare instances, make suggestions during government meetings, it is assumed that the development project is successful.

However, creating meaningful participation in large, complex societies is neither feasible for the limited time-frame of development projects nor sufficient for the development of local democracy. For example, in Africa, where over 400 million people live in poverty, participation can be too time-consuming and expensive for the populace.

Representative democracy is arguably a better means for addressing the concerns of the rural populace in Africa, in particular the rural poor. In representative democracy, voters elect leaders and delegate the authority to govern on their behalf. This removes the high-costs (e.g., time lost from work, transport costs) of direct participation from low-income households. Since each representative ideally supports the priorities of her entire constituency, representative democracy also reduces bias favoring the most powerful groups, particularly if they are in the minority.

Focusing on reforms to this system, rather than singularly relying on direct participation, would ensure that rural priorities are addressed over the long term.

A new WRI report, On Whose Behalf? Legislative Representation and the Environment in Africa, provides recommendations for reforming representative democracy in Africa.

Based upon five years of research and outreach, this report discusses critical incentives and disincentives to legislative representation and the implications for addressing constituency matters.

As the report states, development projects that “discount the influence of the broader political context in which parliaments are embedded…are unlikely to have much effect on the deeper incentive patterns, informal rules, and power principles that guide political life.”

The findings of the report suggest that effective representation can be extremely difficult to attain. It is both challenging for legislators, yet critical to the interests of the rural majority. In Africa, rural households are the majority, comprising 65 percent of the continent’s population. On average, over 60 percent of total rural family income is derived from nature. Their priorities tend to be strongly linked to environmental sustainability (e.g., safeguarding environmental assets, ensuring sustainable use, and protecting critical ecosystem services from degradation).

Advocacy on local environmental issues can be especially problematic for legislators for several reasons. Legislators who risk supporting environmental conservation are likely to be marginalized by senior officials in the executive branch who consider these to be luxuries rather than policy priorities. Other environmental issues, such as security of land, access to natural resources, and benefit-sharing, tend to be politically charged and divisive.

At the same time, legislative representation is critical to the interests of the rural majority and thus the strengthening of local democracy. Case studies from Cameroon, Tanzania, and Uganda show that the environment can be an important entry point for citizens to engage with local and national interests.

The environment can provide a platform for rural citizens to organize around, a catalyst for the development of civil society, and an impetus for grassroots political participation.

The report outlines four critical areas of reform for strengthening representative democracy:

Accountability of legislators to their constituents (e.g., freedom of information acts, providing citizens with recall)
Autonomy from political bosses and politics (e.g., restrict president’s authority to appoint legislators to parliament)
Authority and capacity to perform representation roles (e.g., empower legislatures with authority to impose sanctions on government officials and institutions for poor performance)
Personal Attributes of legislators (e.g., establish minimum standards and qualifications of legislators)

If development practitioners work with policy-makers on empowering legislatures in these areas, then the public will have a louder, though perhaps more nuanced, voice and participatory interventions (for those who choose and are able to participate) will be strengthened.

Smart U.S. Climate Change Policy Can Create Fair Playing Field on Trade

Paul Mackie — Wed, 21 May 2008 11:38:53 -0400

U.S. climate change policy can reduce emissions and ensure fair international competition without carbon tariffs, through pursuing international agreements on key industries and targeting relief specifically to impacted domestic firms.

“U.S. climate change policy must address international competition through smart policies aimed at the handful of most disadvantaged industries,” said Jonathan Lash, president of the World Resources Institute. “We must take care to do more good than harm, and create opportunities, not barriers, for further international cooperation.”

These are among the findings of a book released here today by the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the World Resources Institute (WRI). Leveling the Carbon Playing Field: International Competition and U.S. Climate Policy Design provides an analysis of proposals that address international competition in climate change legislation, such as the Climate Security Act currently being considered by Congress.

“Trade concerns can be most effectively addressed in the international arena, and U.S. policy proposals should reflect this,” added C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Peterson Institute. “While the commitments that developing countries could make in a post-Kyoto agreement are still uncertain, there is great interest in international sectoral cooperation to address the industries most exposed to trade impacts from climate regulation.”

Leveling the Carbon Playing Field examines what effect “carbon emissions caps” would have on the industries likely to face the strongest international pressures from climate legislation: steel, copper, aluminum, cement, glass, paper, and basic chemicals. Electric utilities are also carbon intense but are not as vulnerable to international competition.

There is growing concern that domestic climate change legislation would increase costs for carbon-intensive industries, exposing them to greater competition from developing countries, which would have no similar regulations. Proposals to address these concerns include providing free emissions allocations, increasing costs on imported carbon-intense commodities, or encouraging other countries to impose emissions caps of their own.

However, the book finds that several of the proposed options would likely not provide the intended relief, and in some cases could either make things worse or have adverse consequences. For instance, broad carbon tariffs could be difficult to assess and enforce, and provide no opportunity for exporters in developing countries to benefit from adopting higher standards. But trade measures could be tailored to provide this incentive.

To date, many of the trade-specific measures have been intended to bring China to the climate negotiating table. However, China’s exports of carbon-intense goods to the U.S. are relatively small. Instead, the book finds that Canada is the leading exporter to the United States in all categories except basic chemicals, where the leader is Trinidad and Tobago. Europe and Russia are next in importance. Therefore, trade measures provide little incentive for China to adopt stricter emissions regulations, and could sour the prospects for international cooperation.

In addition, China is already seeking to curb exports of carbon-intensive goods due to local energy and environmental concerns, and has recently implemented border treatment for goods like steel that are equivalent to imposing a carbon tax of $50 per ton of CO2. This, the book’s authors argue, means that engaging China and other developing countries in reaching international agreements on key sectors is more promising than many think, and would more successfully address both competitiveness and climate concerns than unilateral carbon tariffs at the U.S. border. As part of an international sectoral agreement, trade-specific measures could play a role in creating incentives for individual foreign firms to reduce emissions.

U.S. industries vary in their exposure to trade and the costs of climate change regulation.

Until an international agreement is reached, U.S. legislators can maintain a level playing field for carbon-intensive manufacturing through domestic policy design. Costs for trade-exposed industries, which account for less than 6 percent of U.S. emissions, can be controlled in a way that does not compromise the environmental effectiveness of U.S. climate policy or risk trade conflicts by imposing border tariffs unilaterally.

Leveling the Playing Field is the first in a series of publications from WRI and the Peterson Institute that will examine the international dimensions of U.S. climate policy. The report is available at www.wri.org/publication/leveling-the-carbon-playing-field or http://bookstore.petersoninstitute.org.

UPDATE: The Economist covered Leveling the Playing Field in their June 19 edition. Click here to read the article.

Food Price Crisis Triggers Questions about Global Food Security

Zachary Sugg — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:00:17 -0400

Skyrocketing food prices have triggered riots across the developing world and forced the world’s largest food aid agency to confront a $500 million deficit. The media are focused on short-term consequences, but there are also concerns about the long-term forecast for global food security, poverty, and hunger.

A food line in AfricaGlobal food prices have been rising steadily since 2000, and are up almost 50 percent in the last year alone. Low-income countries that import more food than they export have been hit hardest. Thirty-seven countries—21 of which are in Africa—are in a food security crisis, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The World Bank recently announced that the current food situation could push 100 million people into deeper poverty, undoing years of progress in the fight against global poverty and hunger. Poor households spend between 60 percent to 80 percent of their income on food, compared to only 10 percent to 20 percent in most industrialized countries.

FAO Food Price Index: February 2007 - January 2008

food price index

Source: FAO, 2008

What Are the Causes?

Despite several record-breaking harvests, world cereals production between 2000 and 2007 fell well short of consumption. The shortfall has forced the depletion of world grain stocks—a useful proxy for global food security—which are now at their lowest levels in 25 years.

There are several commonly acknowledged drivers behind the current food price spikes, including:

High price of oil, manifested in increased fertilizer and fuel costs
Increased demand for meat and dairy products in the developing world, which requires more grain be fed to livestock
Diversion of crops for biofuel production
Adverse weather conditions, such as the recent six-year Australian drought that decimated rice production
Commodity speculation by investors, and
Lack of access to improved inputs and markets amongst smallholder farmers in the developing world—particularly in sub-Saharan Africa—which limits their ability to react to the incentives created by increased demand, and
Domestic policy responses to higher food prices in developing countries—such as export taxes, bans, or other restrictions—which exacerbate the problem.

These factors together have created a “perfect storm” that has driven food prices up. Although adverse weather conditions and commodity speculation may nudge food prices up in the short term, the rest of these drivers appear to be longer-lasting, and their effects are likely to be felt for several years.

Short-Run vs Long-Run Measures for Global Food Security

The FAO forecasts a 2.6 percent rise in cereal production in 2008, which would result in a record harvest of over two billion metric tons. If this prediction materializes—much depends on unpredictable weather—the current food crisis should ease somewhat. Even so, experts predict that prices will remain high at least through 2015, indicating that short-term policy interventions are necessary to combat hunger over the coming decade. These actions should include targeted safety nets for vulnerable populations, such as the urban poor; increased support for food aid agencies; and short-run trade policy measures, such as reducing tariffs and taxes on key staples.

Over the long-run, ensuring global food security will require greater effort. While most experts believe that the world’s agro-ecosystems, coupled with improved technology, have the physical capacity to satisfy demand through the 21st century, this will not happen if current circumstances prevail. Agricultural trade barriers, environmental degradation, and the under-performance of African agriculture, energy efficiency, and the restoration of marginal lands must all be addressed.

Furthermore, climate change threatens to exacerbate food insecurity in the world’s poorest regions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that rising temperatures will decrease yields in 40 developing countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, and that three degrees Celsius of warming will increase the price of food by 40 percent. Without concerted global action to help vulnerable populations adapt to a warming climate, while also addressing the other drivers of food security described above, global hunger will not be tackled this century.

*Photo by Peter Casier via Flickr

EarthTrends Links

[Crystal Davis](user/293) contributed to this article. An earlier version of this article is posted on EarthTrends.

Poor in Senegal Denied Benefits of Forest Resources

Jesse Ribot — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:33:22 -0400

In many developing countries, forestry policies systematically exclude the poor from the wealth of the forests around them. Senegal provides an interesting example of how even good policies can fail to deliver the benefits they are intended to provide.<!–break–>

I wrote about this phenomenon as it occurs in both Senegal and Nicaragua (with reference to Mali, Honduras, Cameroon, Uganda, Brazil and India) in a study co-authored with Anne Larson of the Center for International Forestry (CIFOR), and published in the Journal of Sustainability Science.

Amanecer: Sunset over Senegalese Forest

Rural populations in Senegal lose out because they are denied access to forests and access to commercial trade. To be allowed to manage their own forests, rural communities must develop and use management plans approved by the National Forest Service (NFS). These plans are expensive to develop and require great labor to implement. It’s also not clear that they are ecologically necessary.

Meanwhile largely urban-based merchants hire migrant laborers to produce charcoal using traditional kilns, without having to present management plans. As a result, they can produce at lower cost, and without the responsibility for forest management.

Until 1998, the system of forest management in Senegal remained highly centralized, involving a system of licenses, permits, and quotas allocated by the NFS. The NFS fixed annual quotas for charcoal production, allocating them to their urban-based merchant allies. The 1998 forestry code eliminated the quotas as of February 2001, passing production decisions to local governments and rural councils. But despite the legal changes, the NFS continues to control forest access, issuing quotas and permits—as if no laws had changed.

NFS officials and agents claim that the quotas are based on national charcoal demand and available forest supply. But they do not really have sufficient data to know. The NFS has steadily lowered quotas as a “forest protection” measure, despite continued high demand, giving rise to illegal production to satisfy the shortages.

Meanwhile, rural communities continue to be excluded from forest management and policy development, not to mention being subject to double standards and arbitrary enforcement. As a result, their poverty continues, and they do not share in the benefits that the changes in law were nominally intended to provide.

Unfair Forestry Policies Abet Poverty, Finds New Study

Jon Talbot — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:41:00 -0400

Unfair government policies fail to benefit poor people who live in the forests of many developing countries. Those same policies fail even to protect forests, according to a new study.Charcoal Trucks, Senegal. Photo by Allyson Purpura.

Double standards and arbitrary enforcement are the main culprits. In Senegal, for example, rural communities must produce and follow detailed forestry management plans, while corporations need only a simple permit. In Honduras, authorities ensure that community groups follow certain regulations, while ignoring the activities of corporations bound by the same laws. Similar stories have played out in Mali, Honduras, Cameroon, Uganda, Brazil, Nicaragua and India, according to the study.

“People in poverty are not just left behind by government policy. They are excluded,” said Jesse Ribot of the Institutions and Governance Program of the World Resources Institute and co-author of the report. “Deliberate policy choices, including some environmental laws and decisions by environmental agencies, are a major cause of that exclusion.”

With an estimated 80 percent of the world’s forests on state-owned land, and 1.6 billion people dependent on forests for their livelihoods, government decisions about the use of forests are all-important to the effort to eradicate poverty.

“History shows us that the traditional model of ‘scientific forestry’ management focuses on maximizing profit for a few,” said Anne M. Larson of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the study’s other co-author. “Governments have the ability – and we would argue the obligation – to use these resources to combat poverty by first reexamining their forest policies.”

Forestry laws in many countries have changed very little since European colonists emphasized control of natural resources with no safeguards for the forest dwellers and few for the health of the environment. More participation in drafting forest policies by the people who live in the forested areas might help reduce poverty and the natural landscape, the study concludes.

“The poverty of forestry policy: Double standards on an uneven playing field” is published in Volume 2, Number 2 of the Journal of Sustainability Science, and is also available at www.wri.org.

Video - Foresters Collude with Merchants: Coercing the Mayor to Cut the Forest

Jesse Ribot — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 10:16:52 -0500

These films show how Senegal’s Forestry service, forest merchants, and other government agents are blocking local governments from playing their legal role in forest management and use.

<!–break–>

I produced this film to demonstrate to Senegal’s Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Local Government how the Forestry Service is blocking forest-sector decentralization. My research examines distributional equity in Senegal under its forest-sector decentralization.

This video is in Wolof and French, available with either English or French subtitles.

English

Summary

Mr. Weex Dunx (Mr. ‘Plucked white’ or Scapegoat), the elected President of the Rural Council of Nambaradougou (Place of many problems), is ecstatic to learn that new decentralization laws have given his council the right to manage and use forests. Mr. Weex Dunx and the council now have the right to decide who gets cut and sell wood and how much wood can be cut in their jurisdiction. But, when Weex Dunx tries to exercise his new powers he is confronted by incredulous foresters, administrators and merchants who are in shock that he thinks he can make decisions about the forests. Exasperated because these powerful notables don’t like him if he resists and his people don’t like him if he gives in, Weex Dunx is torn between doing what is right for his community or surrendering to pressures from powerful people whom he does not want to disappoint.

Français

Sommaire

En wolof, weex signifie « blanc » et dunx signifie « plumé ». Weex dunx, ou le « blanc plumé », signifie le « bouc émissaire ». M. Weex Dunx (M. Bouc émissaire), le président élu du Conseil rural de Nambaradougou (Endroit qui a beaucoup de problèmes), exulte lorsqu’il apprend que les nouvelles lois de décentralisation ont donné à son conseil le droit de gérer et d’utiliser les forêts. Le conseil peut maintenant décider combien de bois de sera coupé dans sa juridiction et qui sera chargé de la coupe et de la vente. Mais, lorsque Weex Dunx essaie d’exercer ses nouveaux pouvoirs, il se trouve confronté à des forestiers incrédules, des administrateurs et des marchands scandalisés qu’il pense pouvoir prendre des décisions concernant les forêts. Exaspéré parce que ces puissants notables ne l’aiment pas s’il résiste et parce que ses gens ne l’aiment pas s’il cède, Weex Dunx est déchiré entre faire ce qui est bon pour sa communauté et s’incliner devant les pressions d’individus puissants qu’il ne veut pas décevoir.

Forests Finally Emerging as Climate Issue

Fred Stolle — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:53:20 -0500

The representatives of more than 100 countries attending December’s U.N. climate conference in Bali, Indonesia, finally focused on the important role tropical forests play in global warming.

Forest clearcut in Indonesia Developed countries have pledged almost $300 million to help forest-rich developing countries prepare for their new roles and responsibilities in the post Kyoto international climate-change agreement set to start after 2012.

Deforestation, especially in the tropics, has been a global problem for decades, with serious implications for the livelihoods of poor people living in the forests as well as global biodiversity.

Despite the fact that deforestation accounts for about 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, tropical forests have thus far been excluded from international climate agreements, including the Kyoto Protocol.

In Bali, an agreement about Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries (REDD) was reached to include the reduction of tropical deforestation as part of the solution to climate change. Although the details are still being worked out, the new agreement will give significant roles and responsibilities to developing countries, especially those with large forest areas such as Indonesia and Brazil.

The recognition by developed countries of the need for immediate funding to developing countries to strengthen forest governance - and the fact that developing countries must also share responsibility to fight climate change - is an important development. It has led to the launch of the World Bank’s new Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, which was partly shaped with input from WRI and will compensate developing countries for reducing CO2 emissions related to maintenance of their forests.

Indonesia, for example, has already carried out a forest governance assessment, with the assistance of WRI, the World Bank, and other organizations. Indonesia’s initiative will serve as an example for the establishment of forest-carbon programs in other developing countries.

Movement like this must happen now, because only by immediately addressing current forest governance problems - such as the need for better law enforcement, distribution of benefits, and access to forest lands - will countries be prepared for a carbon-constrained future.

This article appeared originally at Mongabay.com

Immigration Linked to Degraded Ecosystem

Karen Bennett — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 12:12:19 -0500

Border security is not typically recognized as being tied to environmental changes, but in this recent article by The New York Times, the links are clear. It details how declining fish catches in northwest Africa are fueling immigration to Europe.

With fish populations in northwest Africa collapsing, regional economies are struggling and local populations are finding themselves without one of their staple foods. That means more people are willing to take greater risks by migrating for a fresh beginning in a new country.

Fishers with their catchPeople everywhere depend on nature—that is, ecosystem services—for their well-being. Yet many of these services are in a state of decline. In fact, according to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, nearly 2/3 of ecosystem services are in worse shape than they were a half-century ago. The bottom line of this finding? Nature’s benefits can no longer be taken for granted. According to the Times article, fish populations in Senegal and from other parts of the region were once abundant enough to support livelihoods. But now, families find they are barely scraping by. Major fish stocks are dwindling because of fishing by local boats as well as international fleets, including from the European Union, China, and Russia. This crash in natural resources is encouraging northwest African nationals to attempt migration to more abundant societies. In 2007, about 31,000 Africans attempted to flee to the Canary Islands, which serve as a gateway to Europe. Of these, 6,000 disappeared or died.

WRI’s Mainstreaming Ecosystem Services Initiative brochure coverNorthwest African governments, lured by the promise of money from international trawlers and economic growth, have driven one of their most important natural resources to depletion. European officials, on the other hand, saw that their own fish resources were depleted decades ago and arranged deals to harvest the seas of northwestern Africa. In both cases, decision makers did not realize that many of their decisions both depend on and impact the ecosystem services nature provides.

In northwest Africa, new government policies to attract international fishing fleets in the hopes of payments and economic growth were dependent on wild fish stocks remaining abundant. Likewise, decisions by European officials to exploit fishing grounds in Africa had unforeseen consequences because the ecosystem service was degraded. Motivated by hopes of economic growth and cheap food for their populations, European nations are instead faced with floods of undocumented immigrants.

Recognizing the links between ecosystem services and development goals can help us protect ecosystems from development. Perhaps even more importantly, we need to consider how to invest in managing ecosystems for development. WRI is working to solve problems exactly like these in northwest Africa through our recently launched Mainstreaming Ecosystem Services Initiative.

Download our brochure: What Are Ecosystems Doing For You? Mainstreaming Ecosystem Services Initiative

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