November 2011 – Green Papers: Issue IX
Foreword by President J. A. Kufuor
Former President of the Republic of Ghana
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Food security is the ability of individual households within a given population to access, at all times, the minimum food that they require for a healthy and active life. As global population continues to grow and developing nations continue to raise their populations’ standard of living, the pressure on global food supplies has increased. This paper addresses the challenge of global food security, particularly in Africa and the role of sustainability standards in curtailing the expansion of oil palm plantations in Africa. Palm oil is widely used as a food staple and in cooking in developing countries, particularly those in Africa, where the plant originated, and Asia, where it was introduced in the 19th century. For example, in equatorial West Africa it has been estimated to account for between 10 and 20 per cent of all the calories consumed by the local population. In light of the upcoming Durban climate change talks, it is important to recognize that strategies to preserve forests have significant impacts on developing nations. Food security for Africa cannot be sacrificed.
Click here to read the rest of the Green PaperTrees Before Poverty; The World Bank’s Approach to Forestry and Climate Change
November 2011 – A World Growth Report
At the United Nations climate change conference in December 2009 in
Copenhagen, the World Bank tabled a report recommending a global strategy to reduce the 17 per cent of global greenhouse emissions caused by deforestation and land use. The strategy consisted of curbing the forestry and agricultural sectors, and then substituting them with other industries. In other words, it presented a restructuring of the forestry and agricultural sectors. The Bank sought pledges to fund that strategy throughout and following UN conference based on the 17 per cent number, which it later revised downwards. The donor strategy to fund developing countries to cease forest-based activity and substitute them with ‘low carbon’ industries is based on unreliable data. It is a misconceived strategy that requires suppression of job-creating industries and relies on overseas aid funding. It also is dependent upon income from trading forest-based carbon credits generated by halting deforestation which as yet do not exist. This income is supposed to somehow fund the transition from developing economies to ‘low carbon’ economies. This is a transition that will undermine strategies to reduce poverty. It will, instead, perpetuate it. Click here to read the rest of the World Growth reportThe Economic Impact of U.S. Trade Sanctions on Imports of Paper Products
September 2011 - A Study by Dr. Robert Shapiro and Sonecon, LLC, Commissioned by World Growth
In September 2009, three, large U.S.-based paper companies (NewPage
Corporation, Appleton Coated and Sappi-North America) and the United Steelworkers Union (USW), filed complaints of unfair trade practices by Chinese and Indonesian coated paper producers with the International Trade Commission (ITC) of the U.S. Department of Commerce. This conflict between U.S. and foreign paper producers ignores the most basic features of the global paper market: nations expand their capacity to produce paper products primarily to meet domestic demand. As a result, the global market share claimed by paper producers in the United States and other major paper producing nations closely tracks each country’s share of global paper consumption. If Asian paper producers continue to upgrade their technologies and organizations while American producers depend upon duties to make their products more price-competitive in the United States, the ultimate result will be a growing share of the world market for Asian producers and a shrinking share for U.S. companies. This study examines the economic impact of the anti-dumping and countervailing duties ultimately imposed on those imports by the ITC. Click here to read the rest of the World Growth reportAbuse of Sustainability Standards; An Attack on Free Trade, Competition and Economic Growth
September 2011 – A Study by World Growth
The case to enhance sustainability is now being used to justify trade barriers,
constraints on competition, denial of consumer choice and slower economic growth. In different spheres, governments, large corporations and NGOs are taking action which will produce these perverse results across a common set of industries and products. These are industries which have been selected by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to advance its environmental ambitions. They include timber and paper, vegetable oils, seafood, beef and sugar. The European Commission and some of its leading members are actively advancing these ambitions in public policy. The World Bank has also become an active partner. In recent times, we have seen sustainability standards specified as a condition for allowing imports as a means of pressuring producers in exporting nations to adopt them. As well we have seen companies like Unilever encouraged or pressured by WWF or other environmental NGOs to demand that suppliers comply with similar standards; and action by companies to supply to retail markets only products which comply with those standards, thereby limiting consumer choice. These developments raise some serious questions. This report aims to review these developments and assess their consistency with the principles of open global markets and competitive domestic markets to which most governments subscribe. Click here to read the rest of the World Growth reportGrappling with Inordinate Uncertainty; Measuring the Carbon Footprint of Tropical Land-Use Change
June 2011 – A Study by World Growth
It is fashionable to consider the ‘carbon footprint’ that day-to-day activities of
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humans have on planet earth. The rationale for this concept is that it will give us a readily understood indication of the emissions of certain gases – especially carbon dioxide and methane – that are implicated in raising the earth’s temperature and the level of the sea which has become the focus of much contemporary concern in the community. The published research has concentrated on primary forest and permanent grassland. Little has been published on secondary forest or degraded forestland. What has been documented, however, highlights the high degree of spatial and temporal variation that exists in such cases due to differences in local environmental factors. This is highly significant for any assessment of the ‘carbon footprint’ for palm oil. Most of the recent oil palm development has been on tropical forest land, which has been extensively disturbed or degraded by a combination of fire, harvesting, and clearance for shifting cultivation. The object of this paper is, therefore, to set out logically and coherently the chain of carbon-related events which deliver the palm oil product, to review the literature relating to each stage, and to bring together the data available in a framework which will have utility for a range of readers. The analysis will also identify weaknesses and unreliability in the information and so make recommendations for more research and analysis. Click here to read the rest of the World Growth reportCorporate Social Responsibility – How Global Business is Getting it Wrong in Emerging Markets
May 2011 – A World Growth Study
Every major corporation in the developed world is expected to have a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy. These are company goals to improve sustainability, social engagement, and labor and human rights which
demonstrate the business is a ‘good corporate citizen.’ This report reveals that leading global companies are advancing CSR strategies that are likely to antagonize governments in emerging economies, advance causes of little interest to their local people and jeopardize business activity in the high growth economies of the Emerging Markets. This report reviews the CSR policies of nine leading global corporations across three developed economy continents towards Emerging Markets and finds they disregard national development objectives, have policies that will disadvantage low income producers and commercial opportunity, and even commit to higher sustainability standards for products which there is low consumer demand. The business case for ECSR is strong. If corporations do not craft CSR policies to suit the environment in Emerging Markets, they will be seen as out of touch with local consumers, risk antagonizing public authorities and give indigenous competitors a marketing edge. What about the primary obligation of private enterprises – the return to shareholders? They will lose business. This report suggests relevant CSR standards for such companies to reduce the business risk of existing strategies. Click here to read the rest of the World Growth report Click here to read the AnnexesA Poison, Not a Cure; The Campaign to Ban Trade in Illegally Logged Timber
May 2011 – A World Growth Study
Environmental groups, such as WWF and Greenpeace, have a global goal of
halting commercial forestry and forestry in native forests. One of their strategies to advance this campaign is to generate global concern that illegal logging is a major global problem. One presumption is that high volumes of illegally-sourced wood products are entering the global market. This presumption cannot be substantiated and is very likely to be untrue. The campaign urges trade bans on imports of illegal timber. It has also been driven by industrialized countries, in particular the UK. The campaign is also supported by protectionist interests in the timber and paper industry in the U.S., the EU and Australia, with the aim of limiting imports of more competitive products from developing countries. This report examines the incidence of illegal logging and the international use of trade restrictions as a form of environmental protection. It argues that illegal logging trade bans are contrary to international trade laws and are not justified as their costs likely outweigh any potential benefits. Click here to read the rest of the World Growth reportWorld Bank’s New Anti Poor Palm Oil Policy
May 2011 – Green Papers: Issue VIII
The World Bank Group and International Finance Corporation have released the
Final Framework for Engagement in the Palm Oil Sector. The Framework will have wide ranging negative impacts on the growth and development opportunities from palm oil industry in developing nations. The Framework retains the most harmful elements of the original strategy and will move the World Bank Group further away from its mandate to reduce poverty and establish it as an international environmental regulator. It will hinder attempts to expand food production to meet growing demand and rising prices. Through this Framework the World Bank clearly establishes itself as a partner in a new strategy announced by WWF to control markets to meet environmental criteria. The new policy will reduce the capacity of the IFC to support new investors in the palm oil sector in developing countries and thereby reduce investment. The Bank has effectively endorsed Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) as the only acceptable standard for sustainability. Yet the standard ignores the national development strategies of developing countries. The new World Bank standards also will require that all small holder producers of palm oil be certified. This will reduce the number of small holders producing palm oil. Click here to read the rest of the Green PaperGreen Protectionism and the Lacey Act
April 2011 – A Submission by World Growth
The US Lacey Act is heavy-handed in its approach. Regulatory intervention under
the Act is justified under the presumption that high levels of illegally sourced wood products are entering the US market. In reality, this is not the case. This view has been propagated by a political campaign aimed to protect uncompetitive industry. Impartial assessment of the issues is needed before the US Government considers widening the scope of these amendments. The limited assessments that so far have been undertaken show that global trade in illegal logging is largely insignificant. More so, it is declining. Yet despite its faltering rationale, recent amendments to the Act have extended its regulatory powers. Some industry groups have lobbied for the inclusion of composite wood products — such as pulp and paper — under these amended requirements. The technical difficulties and significant costs of including composite products greatly outweigh the risk of illegal sources entering the US through these products. Click here to read the rest of the SubmissionHow REDD Will Impoverish the Developing World and Reduce Biodiversity; An Indonesian Case Study
March 2011 – A Study by World Growth
A number of developing countries have committed to reduce greenhouse gases
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and to participate in international REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) programs to cease deforestation and reshape their economies as “low carbon” economies. Environmental nongovernment organisations (NGOs) and Western donors argue this will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect biodiversity. The REDD programs will have the opposite effect. It will impoverish those economies. The related calls by environmentalists to have greater forest areas classified as protected areas is also likely to reduce both biodiversity and the economic welfare of local people. In this report, REDD programs proposed for Indonesia are reviewed as a case study. Experience with the economic and environmental impacts of national parks in Indonesia is also reviewed. The results indicate these strategies will reduce economic growth in Indonesia and exacerbate the negative environmental impacts, which are the general result of mismanagement of protected areas in Indonesia. Click here to read the rest of the World Growth reportThe Economic Benefit of Palm Oil to Indonesia
February 2011 – A Study by World Growth
Indonesia is one of the world’s largest producers of palm oil and the industry has
been the economy’s most valuable agricultural export sector for the past decade. The palm oil industry is a significant contributor to production in Indonesia. In 2008, Indonesia produced over 18 million tonnes of palm oil. The industry also contributes to regional development as a significant source of poverty alleviation through farm cultivation and downstream processing. Palm oil production provides a reliable form of income for a large number of Indonesia’s rural poor, with one source suggesting that employment generated from palm oil production in Indonesia could potentially reach over 6 million lives and take them out of poverty. This report has been prepared as an independent assessment of the economic benefits of the palm oil industry to inform policy makers and officials. It examines recent industry performance and considers the prospects for future growth. Click here to read the rest of the World Growth report - English version Click here to read the rest of the World Growth report - Bahasa versionWorld Bank’s Revised Palm Oil Strategy Undermines Economic Development & Restricts Global Markets
February 2011 – A Submission by World Growth
World Growth has reviewed the revision by the World Bank of its proposed
framework for engagement in palm oil following further comments from stakeholders. The new text now refers to many of the concerns raised by Governments, interest groups in developing countries and World Growth that the draft strategy disregarded the Bank’s obligation to advance economic development. Unfortunately, that improvement means little, because the original strategy proposed by the Bank remains basically unaltered. It continues to subordinate reduction of poverty and expansion of economic growth to environmental policy, instead of balancing the two. Since the revised strategy was issued, the official global community (represented by UNFCCC members) has formed a consensus on tackling forestry and climate change while also recognizing the development dimension. Global consensus to prioritize development puts the World Bank even further out of step with other international organizations. Click here to read the rest of the SubmissionPalm Oil and Food Security: The Impediment of Land Supply; How Environmentalists and “No Conversion” are Inflating Food Prices
December 2010 – A study by World Growth
Over the past three decades, the price of palm oil in real terms has fallen by around
1 percent per annum, which represents a major improvement in food security for consuming countries. If palm oil had not been grown commercially, its land would have been reallocated to alternative uses but less vegetable oil would have been produced, other things being equal. The real price of the vegetable oils would have risen and food security would have suffered, particularly in Asia and Africa. An examination of the “no conversion” position in relation to palm oil makes it clear that attempts to restrict future land conversion and as a result, the expansion of high yielding food crops such as palm oil will have a highly detrimental impact on future food security. This paper addresses the issue of global food security and the important role that palm oil plays in enhancing food security, both for those who are involved in producing palm oil as well as those who rely on it as a food staple for their daily diet. Click here to read the rest of the World Growth reportREDD and Conservation: Avoiding The New Road To Serfdom
December 2010 – A World Growth Study
As negotiations for a new global approach to climate change remain stalled and
there is no expectation of progress at the negotiations in Cancun in December 2010, donors have instead made the cessation of deforestation an interim target. A staggering USD 4 billion has been pledged to support this goal. This supposes two things about deforestation, or as we prefer to describe it, conversion of forest land to other uses. First, this will reduce emissions significantly. And, second, the conversion of vast areas of forest to conservation parks will benefit the people of those countries and the environment. This paper has focused on current policy developments in Indonesia. Indonesia is currently the only forested nation that is close to contemplating a ‘zero deforestation’ policy. There is close to USD 2 billion of forest-related development assistance pledged to Indonesia. It has historically high levels of deforestation but also has large areas of forest protection. It is also a country with high levels of economic growth. Development indicators – such as infant mortality and life expectancy have improved remarkably. The population living below the poverty line has also decreased significantly. A major contributor has been the capacity to convert forest land to more productive uses. Click here to read the rest of the World Growth reportThe Issue of Indirect Land Use Change Associated with Biofuel Consumption; Submission to the European Commission
October 2010 – A Submission by World Growth
The EU Renewable Energy Directive directs the European Commission to prepare a report on the issue of indirect land use change associated with biofuel consumption.
The Commission is expected to present its report to the European Parliament and the European Council in December 2010. Early in 2010 the Commission commissioned a number of analyses of di?erent aspects of the issue. These analyses consist of three modelling analyses of the greenhouse impacts of indirect land use change, together with a review of the literature on this subject. The Commission has published the reports of these analyses together with a Consultation Document. The latter seeks the views of interested parties on a series of speci?c questions to ensure the Commission’s report re?ects the latest thinking and evidence on the subject. It has sought responses by 31 October 2010. This submission sets out World Growth’s responses to each of the questions in the Consultation Document. Click here to read the rest of the SubmissionGreen Risk and Red Ink: WWF’s Threat to Free Enterprise
October 2010 – Green Papers: Issue VII
The World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) is a large, multi-faceted international
non-governmental organization. It has a high income and expenditure, in excess of US$650 million annually. It devotes as much as one-third of its operating budget to forestry issues, either through conservation work or via lobbying governments and the private sector on forestry policy. It enters into partnerships with corporations that impose a cost on business. Its varying programs and coalitions with other NGOs and the private sector wield considerable policy influence over governments, intergovernmental organizations and the private sector in general. It has no public or binding charter of accountability. Government bodies, intergovernmental organisations and corporations with budgets of that size are expected to be entirely transparent with their decision making processes. WWF is not. WWF’s policy influence is significantly broader than typical grassroots NGOs, which generally rely on occupying media attention and/or direct lobbying of governments and organizations. WWF’s solution is to encourage businesses to join partnerships and buyer’s groups such as the Global Forest Trade Network (GFTN). The WWF goal is to have businesses agree only to procure and trade products that meet its standards, such as certification by the Forest Stewardship Council. In return, the businesses gain “endorsement” by WWF. If a business does not meet the standards or commitments, WWF will publicly attack the company. Click here to read the rest of the Green PaperThe RSPO and a Carbon Intensity Standard — Issues, Facts and Necessity
October 2010 – Green Papers: Issue VI
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil has come under significant scrutiny and
criticism recently from environmental NGOs. This criticism has centred on a claimed failure of the RSPO to uphold and improve sustainability criteria for palm oil. Pressure from NGOs to tighten sustainability requirements and adopt criteria and principles to demonstrate compliance with a carbon footprint is growing. There is, however, no reason to adopt one. The latest proposals before the RSPO to introduce a carbon standard lack the necessary scientific or social impact analysis to warrant development of such a standard. Seeking to develop and implement a carbon sustainability standard on the present level of knowledge would be a mistake. The information about the level and rate of emissions of greenhouse gases from the production of palm vary so widely that no effort to measure it or set in place measures to reduce it could be devised with an expectation of being able to predict the outcome. Any such measures would be technically deficient – either having little effect or the wrong effect. Proposals for a carbon standard would single out palm oil as the only food supply in the world which would be required to meet carbon standards before being considered sustainable. Click here to read the rest of the Green PaperWhither Poverty Reduction? The World Bank’s Visible Green Hand; A Review of the World Bank / International Finance Corporation’s Proposed Palm Oil Strategy
August 2010 – A Submission by World Growth
The World Bank Group (WBG) has proposed a new policy approach for engagement
on palm oil which will substantially alter the Group’s current approach and runs counter with the Bank’s response to the impending global food crisis. It will erect new conditions for financing, create a new and more onerous set of preconditions for financing, establish a de facto regulatory role for the World Bank, and skew Bank lending and support away from its development mission. The framework will restrict Bank lending to development of palm oil and endorses the concept of restricting use of forest land for agricultural development. This runs counter to the World Bank’s own Global Food Crisis Response Program announced two years ago in response to the emerging global food crisis, which advocates support for broad-based growth in productivity and market participation in agriculture. Click here to read the rest of the SubmissionClarification of the European Commission’s Position on the Renewable Energy Directive
August 2010 – Green Papers: Issue V
The European Renewable Energy Directive has been subject to considerable
‘negotiation’ and gamesmanship. The controversies arise over the use and import of biofuels. What is becoming increasingly clear is the extent and depth of friction between competing interests upon which the Directive impacts. Earlier this year, Environmental NGOs protested that the European Commission was set to define oil palms as forests for the purposes of the Directive. Ultimately, the EC released a Communication which ‘excluded’ oil palms from the de?nition of forests. The reality is that this does not change things. The EC Communication is not binding and does not alter the de?nition of ‘forest’ in the Directive – under which oil palms could qualify. This is just one, and by no means the most important, of the problems being generated by the Directive. It has pitched the widely varying interest of environmental, farm, trade, consumer, renewable energy and transport groups, and the multitude of EC Committees which represent those interests, against each other.
Click here to read the rest of the Green Paper
Protectionism: The New Tool Against Forestry in the Developing World
June 2010 – A World Growth Study
The World Growth report, "Protectionism: The New Tool Against Forestry in the Developing World" examines the way in which both Western governments and NGOs are using different types of trade controls to dictate forest policy in the developing world. The European Union in particular has launched a raft of policy measures that are aimed squarely at forest products such as paper and timber, while the US has amended the Lacey Act to control all imports of plant products. At the same time, both countries have used anti-dumping or countervailing procedures to impose tariffs on paper imports. Combined, these measures will impact upon economic growth in the developing world. This paper examines the proposed and existing green protections that are facing the forest industry in developing and emerging economies and their possible impacts. It also provides a basis for how the industry and governments in developing and emerging economies can respond.
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Caught Red Handed: The Myths, Exaggerations and Distortions of Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and Rainforest Action Network
May 2010 – Green Papers: Issue IV
Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the Rainforest Action Network are urging a boycott
of use of palm oil — supposedly to protect the environment. However, if they succeed, the environment will be at bigger risk, the livelihoods of millions in Indonesia and Malaysia will be threatened and the poor in Africa and South America will remain stuck in a poverty trap. Greenpeace, FoE, RAN and other environmental non-government organisations threaten to tar the reputation of those who purchase palm oil as against the environment. This is not true. The threat is baseless. They will however act in a way which directly harms the poor. That is a fact. Almost half of Indonesia’s population—over 100 million people —live on less than 2 dollars per day. Over thirty million live below the poverty line. Millions of people in Malaysia and Indonesia rely on income from palm oil to pay their bills, feed their families, put a roof over their heads and build savings.
Click here to read the rest of the Green Paper
Greenmail
May 2010 – Green Papers: Issue III
In a carefully co-ordinated campaign, environmental groups in Europe
and North America are ‘greenmailing’ major companies in Europe and the US to suspend purchase of paper products and palm oil from Indonesian and Chinese producers. Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth in Europe, and Rainforest Action Network (RAN) in the US, have threatened to blacken the standing of luxury goods companies, major retail chains and major producers of grocery products unless they submit to Greenpeace demands. The assertions that these companies endorse serious damage to the environment by purchasing from Indonesian suppliers are spurious. Yet some of the companies — Gucci, Nestle and Unilever — have bowed to threats to damage their brand names and leading branded products. They justify this by the belief that it will preserve their carefully developed reputations as leading practitioners of corporate social responsibility (CSR). In reality, what they have done is adopt the radical Green view of how business should behave. They have broken two golden rules shareholders expect CSR to deliver: protection of core business and high ethical standards.
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Collateral Damage: How the Bogus Campaign Against Palm Oil Harms the Poor
December 2009 – A study by World Growth
The world’s governments have convened in Copenhagen to determine a global
strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There is every indication the issue is so thorny that no clear agreement can be reached at Copenhagen. It is likely the parties to the Copenhagen conference will try to identify the areas which can be the basis of a new global strategy and lay down a fresh mandate and program to meet it. Palm oil has been made the ‘poster child’ in this campaign to ensure that any global strategy to reduce greenhouse gases must also cease conversion of forest land to any other purpose. The campaign rests on contentions that it is detrimental to the environment. Some of which are new and rather extreme. The purpose of this report is to examine those contentions, and the leading propositions used to support them, in particular that palm oil is a major driver of change in land use, causes major emissions of greenhouse gases, and that it is the leading threat to the habitat of orang-utan.
Click here to read the entire World Growth Report
Click here to read the Executive Summary
Click here to read the Annex, Rating the Strength of NGO Claims
Conversion – The Immutable Link between Forestry and Development
December 2009 – A Study by World Growth
Leading European Union (EU) members are pressing either for agreement to a
‘No Conversion’ principle, or for endorsement of the idea that no financial assistance should be provided to developing countries unless they apply a ‘No Conversion’ policy. These are policies that would increase, not reduce, poverty (nor have a meaningful environmental impact – most developing countries have already reserved large areas of forest to protect biodiversity). Furthermore, based on the same erroneous assumption about what drives deforestation, the EU is introducing trade measures to enable it to coerce large exporters of forest products to adopt ‘No Conversion’ policies and to restrict large scale and commercial forestry. These policies, advanced as measures to protect the environment, will have only one certain effect: they will increase poverty. This report aims to explain why.
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Click here to read the rest of the Executive Summary
The New Face of European Environmental Protectionism: Forestry and Climate Change
December 2009 – A World Growth Briefing
The European Union (EU) is seeking to impose environmental trade restrictions on
food and forestry products which serve to protect European producers and harm viable sources of growth in developing countries. This action is not new. It is reflective of a longer term trend in the rise environmental trade protectionism. The last few years have seen the growth of regulation in the EU to address environmental concerns affecting trade in food and agriculture as governments have sought to manage the impacts of climate change and ensure environmental sustainability. This approach is being extended to international trade agreements and negotiations. In the agricultural sphere, the EU has made clear (including in the World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha Round negotiations) that it intends to seek new trade restrictions which ostensibly ensure environmental considerations are recognized in any new agreements to liberalize trade in agriculture.
Click here to read the rest of the World Growth briefing
Forestry and Biodiversity: A Healthy Report
December 2009 – A Study by World Growth
A great deal of criticism has been leveled at the global forest industry for its apparent
contribution to biodiversity loss. Those undertaking forestry in natural forests are accused of wholesale forest destruction, leading to signi?cant biodiversity loss. At the same time, those in the private sector that are establishing forest plantations are accused of propagating “sterile monocultures” that harbor little or no biodiversity. Consequently, the perception of forestry in the global environmental debate is that it is the enemy of ?ora and fauna. This perception rests on two assumptions. First, that forestry – plantation or natural – is a major cause of deforestation and therefore biodiversity loss. Second, that forest plantations harbor no biodiversity. NGOs need to decide if they are simply going to campaign against economic development in poor countries – which appears to be their current strategy – or if they actually want to give both the poor and the environment a stronger chance for survival
Click here to read the rest of the World Growth report
Click here to read the rest of the Executive Summary
Green Poverty
November 2009 – Green Papers: Issue II
Greenpeace has been active in the global climate change negotiations. Its public
message is “Stop Deforestation — save the Climate.” But this is not the Greenpeace forestry strategy. It is, as it was long before climate change became a global issue, to “halt commercial forestry” everywhere. Greenpeace has developed technical proposals to support the negotiations and has been active in discussions with donors on strategies for developing countries. Yet its research advances its political goals and its record demonstrates that it will pursue its objectives at any cost, including to the poor. Greenpeace mounts publicity stunts which it coaxes foundations to fund and celebrities to endorse. The latest is a “climate defenders” camp in Sumatra. Greenpeace claims the support of local communities, but local communities have protested its presence. Greenpeace also neglects to show the 70,000 or more people dependent upon forest industries for their livelihoods.
Click here to read the rest of the Green Paper
Conflicts of Interest, Low-Quality Ratings, and Meaningful Reform of Credit and Corporate Governance Ratings
October 2009 - A report by Professors Charles W. Calomiris and Joseph R. Mason
Policymakers and academic critics have identified “conflicts of interest” in the rating industry that have led to poor ratings quality, harming investors who purchase over- or mis-rated investments. In this report the authors address the question of whether conflicts of interest can arise in the ratings industry without the monopoly benefit conferred by regulatory licenses like those given credit rating agencies that operate as Nationally Recognized Statistical Ratings Organizations (NRSRO). The authors show that incentive conflicts are apparent in the corporate governance rating industry, despite the lack of a formal regulatory role for the agencies.
Click here to read the rest of the report
Click here to read the Executive Summary
Don’t Bag Indonesia’s Poor
October 2009 – Green Papers: Issue I
Wangan Maathai — the world’s first female African Nobel Prize winner and originator.JPG)
of the forest conservation Green Belt movement in Kenya — was recently asked on CNN what was the best way to stop deforestation. Her answer? ”Address poverty.” Forestry experts know it is the hunger of the poor for land for food, not commercial forestry, which drives deforestation. Frances Seymour, noted US environmentalist and international forest researcher told the United Nations recently that more than a decade research has found “most drivers of forest loss originate outside the forestry sector.” Nearly half of Indonesia’s 245 million people live on less than two dollars a day. 35 million live in poverty. The Indonesian paper industry employs 400,000 workers and contributes US$5billion a year to the Indonesian economy, mostly from exports. That reduces poverty. World Growth has previously warned that these types of strategies make victims of the world’s poorest children and families. Luxury goods businesses that join the campaign will make them victims too. What would luxury good consumers in fast-growing emerging markets think?
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Palm Oil – The Sustainable Oil
September 2009 – A study by World Growth
There are all the signs that a global campaign 
exists to discredit Palm Oil. This has happened before. Demand for, and consequently production of, palm oil has increased dramatically over the past decade. Palm Oil has a number of advantages over competitor products. When new products have impact on markets, there is a natural process of adjustment. The anti-palm oil campaign has now taken on a new dimension and has been wrapped into part of a broader campaign to restrict emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) by environmental groups and Governments in Europe. Palm oil now is accused of deforestation, reduction of biodiversity, endangering wildlife and increasing greenhouse gas emissions. All of these claims are questionable or at best severely exaggerated. In the process, the vital role palm oil is and can plays in reducing poverty and raising living standards in poor countries is being pushed into the background. The aim of this report is to review the accusations against palm oil and make a reasoned assessment of its impact on sustainability and economic development.
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Click here to read the Executive Summary
Back to Basics: Restoring Economic Growth to the Aid Agenda
September 2009 – A briefing by World Growth
The impact of the global financial crisis on developing economies is anticipated to be severe. Private inflows to developing countries are projected to fall significantly, while development assistance is expected to remain steady. World Growth produced a report, Back to Basics: Restoring Economic Growth to the Aid Agenda, which demonstrated that all of these actions underline the essentiality of supporting economic growth. Yet there is no evidence that development agencies have reviewed their strategies that inform their development expenditures. The report showed a clear decline in support for programs that promote basic economic growth. It revealed that the share of development assistance which directly supports economic growth – specifically, spending on economic infrastructure and services – had fallen by more than half in the past decade.
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Forestry And The Poor: How Forestry Reduces Poverty
August 2009 - A study by World Growth.
World Growth’s previous two reports on 
forestry and sustainable development examined the win-win outcome posed by forestry for both the economy and the environment and the measures needed to implement sustainable forestry in the developing world. The third report, “How Forestry Reduces Poverty,” demonstrates the economic benefits of expanding forestry in the developing world. It also highlights the potential development risks of attempting to curb the uses of forests solely for conservation purposes and tracks the historical link between using forest lands for other pu