ABSTRACT
This chapter deals primarily with the World Bank and focuses on its sister organization, the International Monetary Fund. The Bank's struggle with the development and implementation of its Forest Policy illustrates that, despite policy reforms, key aspects that are necessary for the long-term survival of forests and their biodiversity remain marginal in Bank operations. The loan portfolio has instead revealed an unprecedented increase in forestry lending to support large-scale commercial forestry while the ecological and social aspects of forests are neglected. The chapter examines the extent to which environmental reforms are taking hold at the World Bank by reviewing the issues of transparency and participation. Environmental policy changes have come about as a result of a decade of environmental activism marked by close cooperation between grass-roots movements for social and ecological change in the South and non-governmental organizations in the North.
