ITEM #1
 Title:   Forest corruption report covered up
          Governments, big business, World Bank and IMF named in
          investigation
 Source:  Guardian Unlimited (c) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2000
 Date:    May 29, 2000
 Byline:  Paul Brown, Environment correspondent

 A devastating report about the destruction of tropical forests by
 multinational companies has been suppressed for three years by the
 European commission and World Wide Fund for Nature.

 The report named companies prepared to bribe and bully their way to
 lucrative logging concessions. It also blamed the International Monetary
 Fund and the World Bank for inducing countries to sell their forests for
 a quick cash return to pay off debts to western countries.

 The European commission, which paid the researchers nearly o200,000 for
 the work, was fearful of the repercussions if they named names and asked
 for a second version with the names taken out - but even this version was
 watered down.

 A third version still makes clear that EU funds being poured into
 developing countries to ensure forests are carefully managed are
 frequently being wasted. Forest laws were enacted but no action taken.

 The well-respected authors from the World Resources Institute and WWF
 said they were so disturbed by what they found that they recommended a
 moratorium on all further logging in 11 countries - Cameroon, Gabon,
 Congo (Brazzaville), Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea and the
 Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa; Belize, Surinam and
 Guyana in the Caribbean rim; and Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands
 in the South Pacific rim. This should last until bribery scandals had
 been investigated and proper environmental standards enforced, they said.

 They also recommended an end to EU aid until these issues were addressed
 - but no action has been taken. The report says: "The new investments [by
 Asian multinational companies] have been concentrated in countries with
 generally weak or outdated environmental and social laws and little
 enforcement capacity. The governments of these countries are easy
 pickings to foreign investors as they have weak forest services, poor
 monitoring capacity, inefficient tax collection and auditing capacity,
 and in some cases widespread bribery and corruption.

 "Many of the countries are suffering severe economic difficulties with
 large foreign debts, high inflation and unemployment. In the majority of
 countries studied, decision making is controlled by a small group of
 powerful people or clans within the government that look at primary
 forests of their country as a short-term source of personal revenue, not

 as a productive ecosystem which can generate social, economic and
 ecological benefits on the long term for the entire country and its
 people."

 Corruption

 The Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Cameroon and Belize were all named
 as suffering large-scale corruption.

 "In some countries administrative procedures facilitate widespread
 corruption. Senior officials in countries such as Papua New Guinea have
 been shown to be taking decisions to award logging rights in exchange for
 bribes."

 The report says although European companies have in the past indulged in
 bad practices the scale of the new incursions was much larger and that:
 "The logging itself is often very careless, with high collateral damage
 to the surrounding forest. The roads built to extract the timber often
 hundreds of kilometres long create access to frontier areas that
 facilitate the entry of commercial hunts, farmers, miners and others who
 cause further environmental damage." The companies frequently end up in
 violent clashes with local people and native tribes.

 It blames the main donors to these countries - the World Bank, Japan, the
 EU, France, Germany, the UK and the US - for failing to enforce their own
 rules to promote forest conservation and responsible management. In fact
 the World Bank and IMF make things worse by imposing monetary reform on
 the countries, the report says. These countries are urged to allow in
 multinational companies and governments are urged to sell their forests
 for cash to pay back debts.

 The report says if substantial action is not taken soon by governments,
 donor agencies and investors, as well as environmental and social
 pressure groups, much of the remaining virgin primary forests in the
 Caribbean rim, Central Africa and Pacific will be lost within five to 10
 years, due to the expansion of unsustainable logging operations.

 The original report was completed in 1997 and the EU cleared a twice-
 revised version for publication, printing 5,000 copies. Its press launch
 in July last year was blocked by the WWF, some of whose employees had
 carried out the research. The organisation feared that some of the
 governments concerned, particularly Malaysia, would close down WWF
 offices.

 A weaker version of the report has now been prepared and, because the
 European commission refused to foot the bill, the WWF pulped the original
 5,000 copies and has paid to print 2,000 of the latest version. The
 organisation claimed in a statement to the Guardian that it had to
 correct some "inaccuracies" and hopes this new version will be published
 in July.

 Expert authors

 The Guardian has seen the first three versions of the report - including
 the original draft that details the names of companies and individuals
 involved in bribery scandals. The main authors of the report are Nigel
 Sizer, an expert for the World Resources Institute in Washington and
 Dominiek Plouvier, a forestry consultant who works for WWF in Belgium.
 All their work was peer-reviewed in the countries concerned and by other
 forestry experts before being submitted.

 Mr Sizer said: "Of course I was deeply disappointed that the report was
 not published. A few things were corrected in the peer review process. We
 were very careful about the conclusions we drew in the report. The
 commission was concerned and asked some of the names to be removed but I
 stand by everything that appeared in the drafts. My reputation and that
 of the Institute depends on getting things right. Lack of accuracy was
 not the reason the report was withheld."

 A commission spokesman said: "We asked originally for some of the names
 to be removed and for some revisions but were satisfied with the later
 versions of the report. It was WWF that intervened to prevent publication
 last year. The new version of the report has now been delivered by them
 and will be distributed to interested parties when a list had been drawn
 up." Officials of the commission would now consider the report's
 findings.

 WWF's senior forest officer, Jean-Paul Jeanrenaud, said WWF had been
 anxious to name names but was concerned that many of the companies were
 Asian and the organisation did not want to appear to be Asian-bashing.
 After the Asian financial crisis the report was held up for updating.

 Papua New Guinea

 If the forests were sustainably managed and harvested, it is estimated
 that the annual income to the country could be as much as 2bn. However
 massive corruption in the issue of timber permits, failure to monitor
 exports, and low royalties and taxes have reduced government returns.
 Environmental and social impacts have been serious and well documented.

 ITEM #2
 Title:   Forest report 'sanitised by WWF'
 Source:  BBC News Online
 Date:    May 29, 2000
 Byline:  environment correspondent Alex Kirby

 The World Wide Fund for Nature and the European Commission have demanded
 drastic changes to a report on the destruction of tropical forests, for
 fear of upsetting its perpetrators.

 The report was written for WWF and the EC, but both refused to allow the
 original version, completed in 1997, to be published.

 They were concerned that the multinational companies identified as the
 destroyers of the forests would take offence, and that governments
 accused of bribery and corruption would act against them.

 A final, inoffensive version of the report is being distributed, and is
 due to be published in July.

 LITIGATION FEARS

 A senior WWF source told BBC News Online: "Our main worry is that a
 number of the companies we were going to name are extremely litigious.
 They have dragged other environmental organisations through the courts.

 "So names have had to be taken out, and things we might have liked to
 include have had to be omitted from the final draft."

 The report was written by Nigel Sizer, of the World Resources Institute
 in Washington DC, and Dominiek Plouvier, of WWF-Belgium, and was peer-
 reviewed before being submitted for publication.


 It is highly critical of forestry companies, governments and aid donors,
 including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the European
 Union, the US and the United Kingdom.

 The authors said the situation they found was so bad that they
 recommended a temporary halt to all further logging in 11 countries.

 'PERSONAL REVENUE'

 These are Cameroon, Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville, the Central African
 Republic, Equatorial Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Belize,
 Surinam, Guyana, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands.

 They said the moratorium should remain in force until bribery allegations
 had been investigated and proper environmental standards enforced.

 Decision-making is controlled by a small group that look at primary
 forests of their country as a short-term source of personal revenue

 Without substantial and rapid action, they said, much of the remaining
 virgin primary forests in these countries would have gone within five to
 10 years.

 In most of the countries, the authors said, "decision-making is
 controlled by a small group of powerful people or clans within the
 government that look at primary forests of their country as a short-term
 source of personal revenue".

 They said the logging itself was often very careless, and it opened the
 forests to exploitation by hunters, miners and farmers.

 Violent clashes with local people were often the result.

 THREE YEARS LATER

 The original report was completed in 1997, but after two revisions its
 press launch in July 1999 was blocked by WWF, afraid that some of the
 governments named, especially Malaysia, would close its offices in their
 countries.

 WWF told the Guardian newspaper of London, which details the report's
 suppression, that it had had to correct some inaccuracies.

 But Mr Sizer said he stood by everything that had appeared in the drafts.
 "My reputation and that of the World Resources Institute depends on
 getting things right.

 "Lack of accuracy was not the reason the report was withheld," he said.

 An EC spokesman said it had asked for some revisions to the first draft,
 and for the removal of some names, but added: "It was WWF that intervened
 to prevent publication last year."

 Jean-Paul Jeanrenaud, WWF's senior forest officer, said the organisation
 had wanted to name names, but was concerned that many of the companies
 were Asian.

 It did not want to appear to be Asian-bashing, he said.