*{ http://www.foe.org.uk/pubsinfo/infoteam/pressrel/1996/19960909115504.html
10 septembre 2002

WORLD BANK IN AFRICAN RAINFOREST SCANDAL 
09 Sep 1996 
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Secret documents in the possession of Friends of the Earth show how World Bank staff misled their own Board of Directors in order to force through a project that will lead to new logging in some of Africa's most spectacular tropical rainforests. 

Internal memoranda relating to the Cameroon Transport Sector Project note that roads paid for by the World Bank will "give access to protected forest areas where logging is likely to occur" and say that "most of what the Bank is supporting (or wants to support).... will increase incentive for logging". 

The road was approved by the UK's representative at the World Bank on behalf of British taxpayers. 

World Bank staff note that "Some serious flak is coming up around the Cameroon transport sector project" but instead of recommending the scheme be shelved, the documents show that they misled the Board of Directors to get the project through. One memo confirms that a letter, supposedly from the Government of Cameroon, saying that environmental concerns would be addressed, was actually written by World Bank staff. The internal memo confirms "that we would receive [the letter] (early next week) from the Government of Cameroon. According to the letter, the Government would take the necessary environmental precautions for all the maintenance and rehabiltitation [on the new roads], particularly in the ecologically sensitive areas" [1].

Tony Juniper, Deputy Campaigns Director at Friends of the Earth, said:

"The World Bank is a smoke screen behind which environmental and social destruction is carried forward in the name of 'development'. World Bank policies to protect forests and the poor are not worth the paper they're written on. 

"The British Government must demand an inquiry and heads must roll. In the meantime, Friends of the Earth will be asking UK MPs not to approve any more British money for the World Bank".

Aspects of this project [2] were considered for funding by the much less stringent African Development Bank (AfDB) in 1991 but were turned down after protests from campaigners and an official environmental assessment (EA). These aspects have now appeared in the World Bank project. Indeed, the World Bank documents say that "One of the roads on the map is a pure and simple logging road that AfDB rejected on environmental grounds [their emphasis] following an EA" . The World Bank goes on to say that "it appears that the World Bank may be funding road maintenance that AfDB rejected and without our own EA".

The project was approved by the Bank's Board of Executive Directors on May 30th 1996. The UK's Board member was initially against the project but ultimately voted in favour. The United States' Board member was the only one to vote against: he is also the only one required by national law to make his voting position public.

*{ NOTES TO EDITORS: }

[1] The ecologically sensitive areas include the Dja wildlife reserve. According the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), "The Dja reserve is one of the largest, biologically richest and best preserved moist forest areas in Africa". It will be made further accessible to logging companies by a new road. See below.

[2] The largest component of the AfDB project was the construction of a 131km engineered road between Abong-Mbang and Lomie in south-eastern Cameroon to replace the existing narrow dirt track. This road, now part of the World Bank project, will pass in close proximity to the Dja wildlife reserve, one of Africa's key wildlife protection areas (see [1]). The road will increase access for the poorly regulated logging industry which is widely accepted to operate to low and environmentally damaging standards.



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