A meeting of 20 leading international environmentalists took place in Switzerland last week to discuss the question of the reform of the World Bank's forest policy. The meeting was organised by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Based on the discussions, the IUCN will forward a synthesis of their position to the World Bank by the end of this week about proposals to change the old 1991 policy. The destiny of the Brazilian proposal for Bank support for the National Forests Programme, which includes forest management in Amazonia depends on the discussion. The US$ 10 million loan will be the first test for the new policy.

Objections to the new proposals for forest policy are of differing natures. On the one hand, principally from Conservation International, comes criticism of forest management. On the other, organisations like the World Rainforest Network have reached similar conclusions, but from a different perspective, which is to limit as far as possible the Bank's interference in forest investments (this interference is considered dangerous, based on the African experience) The middle ground is occupied by more flexible positions from those who want stronger guarantees of caution but think that sustainable management is a necessary tool which provides an alternative to the practice of converting forest cover, for agricultural and cattle-ranching. That is the case of the only representative of a Brazilian organisation at the meeting, Roberto Smeraldi of Friends of the Earth - Brazilian Amazonia.

One point on which there was unanimous agreement was that the precautionary measures predicted for non-forest investments which have an impact on forests (infrastructure, ranching etc. ) are still - in the new policy proposal - more flexible and modest than those predicted for investments in forest management. Also, the procedures by which cases which might be approved by the Bank will be identified (basically, community management, small and larger scale, but only with certification) are not very clear and may not be workable in practice, according to the majority present at the meeting.

In the next few days, the IUCN will circulate a tentative synthesis of the concerns raised at the meeting. This coincides with discussions in Washington on 18 July about the Brazilian proposal for the Bank to support the National Forests Programme.

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