ABSTRACT
India has too many competing demands on the uses of concessional International Development Association funds to deploy those resources in the forest sector. And China and Costa Rica are loathe to use costly International Bank for Reconstruction and Development loans to invest in the benefits of conservation, which are long-term, risky, and more global than local. From 1991 until June 1999, the World Bank has managed two-thirds of the total Global Environment Facility (GEF) portfolio and took on implementation of 162 projects with GEF grant funding, approximately 44 of which were forest projects with commitments of $370 million. Global production and consumption of wood are likely to increase about 26 percent between 1996 and 2010. Production and consumption are in close balance within regions, but there is substantial intra-regional trade. Demand from China, India, and Japan, for example, has been met largely by Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia.
