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Environment & Sustainable Development
Forest Integrity Network
Overview | Background | Events
Excerpt from the Forest Integrity Network's Concept Paper:
At a meeting in May 2000 held at the Harvard University Center for International Development, a group of NGOs, donor organizations, academic institutions, and specialists in forestry and related disciplines undertook to collaborate in the fight against corruption in the forestry sector. To this end, they agreed to establish a Forest Integrity Network (FIN) with the objective of seeking peaceful, effective, and long-lasting solutions to the problems of forestry corruption. This initiative was led by Transparency International, with support to date from the Center for International Development, IUCN, and the World Bank. A follow-up meeting hosted by the World Bank in Washington DC on November 29-30, 2001 was attended by a broad spectrum of interested stakeholders. The participants reached a broad understanding on the role, modalities and governance of FIN, as well as on the key activities to be undertaken in the near to mid term.
Download the
full text of the FIN Concept
paper as a PDF.
Overview | Background | Events
Uncontrolled deforestation is wreaking environmental and
economic havoc around the world. Corruption plays a key role in this
destruction. The numerous manifestations of corruption in the forestry
sector include inefficient pricing of concessions, logging in protected
areas, the creation of bad legislature, fraud, and tax evasion schemes.
Corruption, if not controlled, can undermine even the best regulations and
control mechanisms.
Many different entities have a stake in promoting sustainable forestry and
forest conservation, including the private forestry industries, forest
inhabitants and communities, consumers, governments, forest research
institutes, conservation groups within civil society, and donor agencies and
development organizations. Recent years have seen a greater willingness to
openly acknowledge the pervasiveness and damage done by corruption, and to
confront the issue within the forestry sector.
The Forest Integrity Network was founded at a meeting at the Harvard Center
for International Development in May 2000. It was established as an
international network of a wide array of stakeholders (i.e. international
organizations, NGOs, researchers, governments, civil society, and the
business community) with a focus exclusively on fighting corruption in the
forestry sector.
Overview | Background | Events
Draft Summary Proceedings of the Second Meeting of the Forest Integrity Network (November 29-30, 2001)
Corruption and Forests: A Workshop Towards Research and Action (May 12-13, 2000)
Draft Summary Proceedings of the Second Meeting of the
Forest Integrity Network
Thursday, November 29 - Friday, November 30, 2001
World Bank, Washington D.C.
Summary
The November 2001 meeting of the Forest Integrity Network (FIN) took place at the World Bank in Washington, DC, on November 28-29, 2001. The meeting was attended by some 35 participants covering a broad cross section of groups concerned to fight forestry corruption from representatives of activist NGOs, government forestry and anti-corruption departments, international organizations, research institutes, through to representatives of the private sector engaged in forest industries and certification.
The meeting was a follow-up to the May 2000 Harvard meeting at which FIN was launched under the aegis of Transparency International and with the support of the Center for International Development (Harvard University), IUCN, and the World Bank. The purpose of the November 2001 meeting was to clarify the future role of FIN in the worldwide fight against corruption in the forestry sector and establish its modalities and work program.
The first day of the meeting comprised a presentation of the FIN concept paper (attached) and of the modus operandi of Transparency International (TI), followed by the presentation and discussion of country case studies from Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Georgia, Benin and Honduras aimed at illustrating the potential contribution of an active FIN. The second day was devoted largely to discussions in a workshop format involving all participants aimed at delineating the future agenda and modalities of FIN.
A consensus was reached that there was an important role for FIN as an independent broad-based coalition of stakeholders devoted to fighting forestry corruption worldwide. The participants agreed on a mission statement, structure and action plan for FIN. In particular, it was agreed that FIN should establish a comprehensive documentation center and data base on forest corruption, identify and disseminated best practice in fighting forest corruption, encourage additional relevant research, and foster national stakeholder coalitions to fight corruption at the country level. Finally, the meeting recommended that a focal point for FIN should be established to be located within the Secretariat of Transparency International with a full-time coordinator and a representative Steering Committee drawn from among the stakeholders. For the most part FIN would be a ‘virtual’ organization with its own webpage on the TI website; where appropriate expert working groups would be established. To make this possible, TI should seek dedicated funding for a FIN project. Several concrete offers of action by participants were made and accepted.
Corruption and Forests
Sponsored by the Center for International Development, Transparency International, and IUCN - The World Conservation Union
Friday, May 12 - Saturday, May 13, 2000
Perkins Room, 4th Floor,
Rubenstein Building,
KSG
Executive Summary
The latest data on natural and planted forests worldwide confirm the alarming trend of deforestation throughout the globe. Between 1990 and 1995, 56.3 million hectares of forest area were lost.[1] This has clear and documented effects on the earth’s forest ecosystems. It threatens their role as a major reservoir of biological diversity. It impacts the daily life of hundreds of millions of people on the globe and has broad consequences for the planet.
A number of studies and ongoing research are conducted on the underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation and most observers agree on the prevalence of corruption in connection with the phenomenon in many parts of the globe. Corruption is associated in particular – but not only – with illegal logging, interest-driven or politically motivated allocation of logging concessions, fraud and tax evasion schemes. The accountability of corporations and various actors engaged in corrupt practices is seriously weakened. Corruption renders inspection policies ineffective, most regulations and control mechanisms worthless and prevents the application of sustainable forest management practices.
However, the links between corruption and forest destruction are highly complex - they involve private companies, the government, local people, and increasingly, the global community. These complexities also cut through economic, political, social, legal and ecological systems. Not enough research has been conducted to assess the causes, implications and possible remedies and not enough has been learned about how to fight corruption in the forestry sector on a practical level. Practitioners at all levels, national and international, official and non-governmental, public and private see the results of their attempts to curve corruption negligibly affected as they lack the proper tools to assess the consequences of their actions.
This workshop was launched in order to establish the basis for a concerted international effort to better understand the problem, discuss a methodology and suggest solutions that may prove useful to both practitioners, and researchers. The workshop fulfilled two objectives:
[1] FAO, 1999 State of the World’s Forests, Rome, Italy
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Copyright
© 2007 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Last revised
10/31/2007