Indonesia: Fire Hazards, Transboundary Haze and Sustainable Forestry in East Asia and the Pacific

Summary of Workshop Proceedings

“Fire Hazards, Transboundary Haze and Sustainable Forestry in East Asia and the Pacific”

Surabaya, Indonesia, 9-12 December 1998

Organized by EDIEN-World Bank in collaboration with IC-SEA, CIFOR, ICRAF, WWF, IUCN and the ADB, and co-financed by AUSAID and the Government of the Netherlands

The activity consisted of two major components:

1. A field visit to East Kalimantan (Dec. 6-8) of the core group members of the program. The visit was organized with the aim of giving core group members an understanding of:

(i) GTZ projects on (a) forest fire management (IFFM) and (b) sustainable forest management (SFMP); and
(ii) The challenges faced by the park management in the conservation of the Kutai National Park in East Kalimantan and those posed by the recent fires in the province.

2. A workshop in Surabaya (Dec.9-12) to highlight the key issues related to forest fire management in particular and conservation forestry in general for the region; and to generate discussion to identify policy-based approaches to addressing the problems in this sector.

1. Field Visit

The following members of the core group and World Bank staff were present: Mubarik Ahmed, Shamsudin Ibrahim, Jean Marie Assene-Nkou, Rafael Herrera, Angele Luh Mbazoa, Manuel Rodriguez, Barney Chan, Ovidio Gasparetto, Adalberto Verissimo, Sylvian Bayalama, Carlos E. Bertao, Nalin M. Kishor, Alcira Kreimer, Manuel Clar-Massanet, and Violaine Le Rouzic. The group was accompanied by Hartmut Abberger and Anja Hoffman from the GTZ field office in Samarinda.

(i) GTZ Initiatives

(a) Integrated Forest Fire Management Project (IFFM)

GTZ started fire management work in the East Kalimantan province in 1982, but the IFFM formally started in 1994. The major objective of the IFFM project is to build up an effective capability at the local level with the participation of the local stakeholders to suppress small fires. The project operates in the Bukit Soeharto Protected area and, recently, limited activities have focused on the Kutai National Park. IFFM is in its second phase that will last up to June 1999. At this stage, a third phase will be considered.

Bukit Soeharto in Samarinda Province was declared to be a protected area in the mid-1980s and covers about 60,000 hectares. There are many migrant villagers inside the area mostly from South Sulawesi. Governments attempts at relocating these migrants to places outside the Park have been quite unsuccessful and the slash-and-burn approach that these people use to cultivate cash crops such as pepper and cacao have posed a fire threat to the forest in this area.

IFFM seeks to address this threat by involving the community in fighting small fires. It organizes a volunteer group from the village and brings them into contact with forestry guards (from the Forestry Service) to jointly determine an effective fire suppression management plan for the village. Each village constructs a village fire post where the equipment is stored and which has become the hub for fire fighting activities in the village. Basic equipment such as hoes and rakes for clearing flammable materials and backpack water pumps for actual suppression is used.

In order to coordinate its activities, IFFM has established one fire management post for Samarinda and is planning to expand the coverage by adding another 10 posts in the province. These posts will be connected via radio communication into a network across the Province.

Assessment and Impressions of IFFM project

Based on the information given by the project leader and on an interview of villagers in Bukit Soeharto and Kutai, the core group felt that:

the project has been successful in building up an effective cadre of firefighters at the village level;
the forest guards from the forestry service and the villagers have been brought together into a collaborative partnership and out of the traditionally antagonistic relationship;
an understanding of fire suppression and of the risks posed by fires may lay the ground for villagers to accept the more fundamental changes required for fire prevention; and
by identifying a major area of common concern, the project has contributed to the development of cooperation within a village and between villages. Local NGOs have become involved in the last 2 years.

Areas of Concern

an effective system of incentives needs to be implemented to make the model of cooperation between the forest guards and the village volunteers sustainable in the long run;
the Forestry Service and the Forestry Department both have jurisdiction in the province and this often creates coordination problems for the project;
donor coordination is criticalespecially between the GTZ (East Kalimantan), EU (North Sumatra), and the World Bank (Central Kalimantan); and
funds are needed to scale up the project from its current pilot status.

(b) Sustainable Forestry Management Project (SFMP)

The project is a major activity under the Indonesian-German Development Cooperation initiative, and its main objective is the promotion of sustainable forest management systems in East Kalimantan.

In the context of the recent forest fires in East Kalimantan, the project aims to address the issues of fire prevention by examining land tenure problems and creating an enabling framework in which stakeholders can focus on problem-solving. This includes participatory resource mapping, building up village cooperatives, sensitizing the local government to the problems of local villagers, etc.

Latest GIS data indicates that the 1998 fires may have affected up to 5 million hectares of vegetated land in East Kalimantan. Previous logging and forest fires had already degraded much of this. But a significant fraction is estimated to be an old-growth forest. For example, preliminary estimates suggest that the recent fires have affected over 75% of the core area in Kutai National Park. The impacts on biodiversity and timber resources have yet to be fully assessed. This project focuses on the timber aspect to estimate what it would take, in financial, personnel, and organizational terms, for the rehabilitation of the burnt area in East Kalimantan; and how the management and operations of the 32 concessionaires operating in this area need to be reevaluated and redefined.

(Documents on both projects are available upon request from Nalin M. Kishor, e-mail:nkishor@worldbank.org; tel./fax:202-473-8672/676-0977)

(ii) Kutai National Park

This is one of the most important protected areas in Indonesia. It was declared as a national park in 1982 and covers an area of almost 200,000 ha. comprising 6 forest formations along the equator. It is home to important species such as the orangutans, honey bears, spotted leopards, hornbills, and woodpeckers. It also includes peat swamps that harbor species such as turtles, crocodiles, and pythons.

The park is threatened due to a number of factors:

i) the Bontan-Sangatta Road, an important North-South highway in the province, runs right through the park and makes it difficult to control access to the protected areas,
ii) logging concessions to the northwest and forest plantations to the south and west of the park are constantly constructing access roads and thus encouraging in migration, illegal land-clearing and timber harvesting in the core areas,
iii) there are large-scale coal mining operations in the northeast of the park. The current protected area itself contains rich deposits of coal, so much so that the coal mining companies had filed to be given mining rights inside the park! While the application was not entertained in this instance, mining operations are likely to pose a constant threat to the viability of the park, and
iv) there are several large illegal settlements inside the park boundaries. This includes one of about 600 families of Bugis. The Bugis migrated from Sulewasi in the 1960s and consider that they legally own the land that they have been cultivating since then. Attempts to relocate them to areas outside the park have been unsuccessful. As the community expands it is likely to increase the pressures for land clearing and forest conversion. Thus, any long-term management plan for the park must recognize the rights and role of the Bugi community.

The management of Kutai is in the hands of the park protection service that is woefully inadequate in terms of staff and equipment. The recent fires in East Kalimantan provide an example of how overstretched the park service is. Estimates by the WWF and GTZ suggest that up to 75% of the core protected areas of the park may have been negatively impacted by the fires. There is an urgent need to “ground-truth” this; evaluate the true extent of the damage and the impact on wildlife and determine how it may change the management approach for the park in the future. So far, this has not been done.

Areas of Concern
The core group expressed strong concern about the future of the Kutai national park. More specifically, it was felt that:

the existing pressures (loggers, coal-miners, migrant settlers) were insurmountable and much more needs to be done to involve these groups as allies in conservation rather than as competing forces for unsustainable resource exploitation. It was felt that that an organization such as the “Friends of Kutai” if properly managed could be vehicle to achieve a partnership approach to conservation,
the park service should be strengthened in terms of personnel, equipment and expanded legal authority; and
an immediate inventory of the forest should be undertaken so as to have a reliable idea of the impact of the recent fires on the resources (including biodiversity) of the park; and to redesign a management strategy incorporating this information.

2. Workshop

The workshop was held in Surabaya from Dec. 9-12. Including the core group and the resource persons, there were about fifty participants to the workshop from Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, etc. The full workshop agenda is given in Annex 1. A complete list of participants is given in Annex 2.

The main objectives of this workshop were:

an analysis of the basic, structural sources of the problem of land use, forest burning and land degradation;
a better understanding of the long-term impacts of fires on resource degradation including forests, biodiversity and water;
the provision of information to assist key decision-makers and opinion leaders to better recognize and respond to the need for national policy and institutional reforms to address long-term forest sector problems;
to go beyond Indonesia to the regional dimensions of the problem with a view to fostering regional cooperation on environmental security;
to develop a network of policymakers and researchers–a community of practice–to enable the sharing of international experiences on policy and technological options for forest fire management and to foster collaborative research on these issues; and
to identify the scope for regional follow up based on the workshop discussions.

As was envisaged at the time of designing the agenda, the deliberations of the workshop went beyond the issue of forest fires into the various aspects of sustainable forestry in Indonesia and in the East Asia region. Top-notch resource persons coupled with knowledgeable and enthusiastic participants ensured very high-level discussions that translated into concrete policy recommendations.

The workshop was opened by Mr. Thomas E. Walton and Mr. Carlos E. Bertão from the World Bank followed by an overview of the workshop objectives and discussion of the workshop agenda by Dr. Nalin Kishor (World Bank) and Dr. Daniel Murdiyarso (IC-SEA).

The workshop sessions are summarized below.

Wednesday, 9

Morning Session
The first-panel presentation chaired by Carlos E. Bertao focused on regional policy setting and initiatives in managing forest conversion and fire haze. The following presentations were made:

Mr. Dana A. Kartakusuma, Ministry of State for the Environment of Indonesia: Land and Forest Fire Control in Indonesia
Mr. Reidar Persson, CIFOR: A Proposal for a Socio-economic and Ecological Assesssment of the Iimpacts of Fires
Mr. Tahir Qadri & Mr. Erik Scarsborough, ADB: Operational Response Strategy for Preventing and Mitigating Large-scale Fires and Associated Transboundary Haze Pollution in the ASEAN Region.
Mr. John Keating, EU-FLB: EU Development Cooperation Program and Forest Fire Action Plan.

Mr. Dana A. Kartakusuma, Deputy Assistant to the Minister of State for the Environment of Indonesia, made a comprehensive presentation on the actions and strategies undertaken by the government of Indonesia to manage and prevent land and forest fires based on the study of impacts and factors of the fires. These actions or recommendations were based on these studies and on the evaluation of the up-to-date efforts to prevent fires.

Mr. Reidar Persson from CIFOR presented a proposal designed by CIFOR, ICRAF, and UNESCO to undertake a socio-economic and ecological assessment of the impacts of fires and a management plan to improve local level fire management.

Mr. Tahir Qadri & Mr. Erik Scarsborough from the Asian Development Bank listed the major causes of forest fires in the region and presented paper on the operational response strategy for preventing and mitigating large-scale fires and associated transboundary haze pollution in the ASEAN region. A comprehensive review of donor collaboration and regional initiatives on fire and haze action plan achievements was also discussed.

Mr. John Keating from the European Union Forest Liaison Bureau presented a review of the EU development cooperation program and activities in forestry with the government of Indonesia and a proposed EC forest fire action plan.

The presentations provided a good overview of the ongoing and proposed national (Indonesia) and regional activities focusing on forest fire management. The discussions underlined the need for regional and inter-agency coordination to maximize the effectiveness of the initiatives in the region.

Lunch Presentation
Mr. Manuel Rodriguez, former Minister of Environment of Colombia and Director of the Andean Center for Sustainable Development made a lunch presentation on the impacts of the recent financial crisis on forests.

Afternoon Session
Mr. Shamsudin Ibrahim from the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) chaired the afternoon session. It discussed the ecological, economic and social costs of 1997/98 East Asia forest fires; and to provide a perspective on damages due to forest fires from other regions in the world.

The following presentations were made:

David Glover (EEPSEA): Economic Value of Haze Damages in Southeast Asia.
Carey Yeager (WWF-Indonesia): Ecological Costs of 1997/1998 Forest Fires in Southeast Asia.
Peter Moore (IUCN): Economic/Social Costs from Forest Fires: International Estimates.

Mr. David Glovers presentation focused on the economic value of damage caused by the 1997 fires and haze in Southeast Asia. The study revealed a total loss of about US$ 4 billion for Indonesia, equivalent to about 3.5 % of the GDP of the country. Neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Singapore suffered damages worth about US$0.5 billion. The numbers provide a vivid reminder that fires have regional impacts and the problem is best addressed in a regional context.

Dr. Carey Yeagers presentation focused on the ecological costs of 1997/1998 forest fires in Southeast Asia. The study emphasized on the effects of the fire and haze on fauna and flora and consequently on productivity. The presentation also explored the immediate, intermediate and long-term effects of the destruction of peat swamp areas. The rehabilitation of these ecosystems to maintain hydrological cycles and water quality and biodiversity is critical. It was recommended that bilateral and multilateral donors should initiate efforts involving local communities and local labor.

Dr. Peter Moores presentation examined the impacts and repercussions of forest fires in many parts of the world such as Russia and Central America. In other forest types especially in boreal forests, fire is a natural part of the ecosystem. This is different from East Asia where fire is not an inherent part of the ecosystem cycle. Hence management strategies would differ to reflect this fundamental difference.

A key point emerging from the discussions was that land use strategy (in Indonesia) needs to be modified and enforced. Specifically, it was proposed that there should be an immediate moratorium on further conversion of old growth forests and peat swamps and that plantation development should be restricted to “alang-alang” grasslands.

Thursday, December 10

Morning Session
The morning session, a joint session with the IC-SEA 2nd Working Group Meeting, was chaired by Mr. Tahir Qadri. It focused on the regional and international experiences in forest fire management.

The following presentations were made:

Alcira Kreimer, (Disaster Management Facility, World Bank): Lessons from World Bank Experiences on Disaster Management.
Daniel Murdiyarso (IC-SEA): Land Use Management and the Impact of Transboundary Pollution from Fires in Southeast Asia
Johann G. Goldammer (Global Fire Monitoring Centre/Max Planck Institute for Chemistry): Relevance of International Experiences in Forest Fire Management to East Asia.

Dr. Alcira Kreimers presentation focused on the lessons from World Bank experiences on disaster management. Since 1980, there have been 39 projects with forest fire management components. Of these 5 projects (in China, Croatia, Brazil, Belarus and Venezuela) were exclusively on forest fires. Some of the key lessons learned from the projects werebeneficiary ownership and community involvement are crucial in efforts at fire prevention and suppression, a need for an integrated resource management approach, the need to set realistic goals and adequate monitoring and maintenance.

Dr. Daniel Murdiyarsos presentation emphasized that, while landuse management policies are typically considered a local or national issue, the transboundary pollution from vegetation fires underline that they are also a regional issue. Thus, policy responses should be coordinated at the national and regional levels.

Dr. Johann G. Goldammer’s presentation emphasized that the ENSO drought, lack of fire management technologies, and training cannot alone be blamed for the uncontrolled vegetation fires and smoke problems. The most critical factors are inadequate and faulty policies and lack of political will. He suggested that existing information, professional expertise and networks in the region are adequate but not effectively utilized. These must be used in conjunction with existing structures and institutions to effectively address fire problems in the region.

Lunch Presentation
Mr. Abdul Malik, the Bureau Chief for Marine, Aerospace Environment, Science and Technology of BAPPENAS reported on the findings from the international cross-sectoral forum on forest fire management in Southeast Asia that was held in Jakarta on December 7-8. Clear policy relating to land management and land clearance in conformity with land requirements for various purposes was one important recommendation.

Afternoon Session
Dr. Daniel Murdiyarso, head of IC-SEA, chaired the afternoon session. The session was devoted to present and discuss the links between El Niño, droughts, forest fires and climate change and the haze, air-pollution and spread aspects of the recent forest fires.

The following presentations were made:

Peter Whetton (Division of Atmospheric Research Division of Atmospheric Research, CSIRO-Australia): Impact of Climate Change on Forests.
Angelica Heil (GTZ): Fire-related Transboundary Haze and Air Pollution.
Fred Stolle (ICRAF): A Review of the 1997/98 Fire Event in Sumatra.

Dr. Peter Whetton presented the impact of climate change on forests in Southeast Asia and the adjacent Pacific region. Specifically, the possible variability of rainfall regimes and the exacerbation of forest vulnerability to drought, fire, floods and erosion was explored.

Ms. Angelica Heil reported on the fire-related transboundary haze and air pollution. She focused on haze emissions, development, transmission and the human health impacts of haze. One of the most emissions intensive sources was the burning of peat swamp areas and this was identified to be an important area of control to reduce harmful pollutants.

Mr. Fred Stolle reviewed the 1997/98 fire event in Sumatra by analyzing the spatial and temporal distribution of hotspots in relation to the location of the main stakeholders (large and smallholders, transmigrants, farmers, etc.) and to road-access to those areas. Data revealed that mangrove and swamp areas had the highest hotspot occurrence and protected areas the least. Data also reveals that a relatively small area in a small time interval had become the main source for the fire and regulating land preparation on certain dates in key areas could prevent smoke and a future disaster.

Friday, December 11

Morning Session
The session, a joint session with IC-SEA 2nd Working Group Meeting, was chaired by Mr. Barney Chan, General Manager of the Sarawak Timber Association. The focal point of the morning session was the causes and control of fires in the context of industrial forestry, estate crops and commercial farming, smallholder cultivators, indigenous communities and new migrants.

The presentations were made:

A. Ngaloken Gintings (Forest Product and Social Economic Research Development Centre): Wood Waste Management and the Risk of Forest Fires.
Zahrul Muttaqin (Indonesian Business Council for Sustainable Development BCSD): “No Burn” Land Clearing Approaches.
Peter Moore (IUCN): Local Community Experiences in Fire Management.

Dr. A. Ngaloken Gintings initiated the session on the relationship between waste wood management and the risk of forest fires. The chance of self-burning of waste wood are very unlikely but when fires do occur, if waste wood exists it can exacerbate the situation and increase unhealthy emissions. Utilizing it for useful products and/or using land clearing techniques that reduce its production can minimize waste wood.

Mr. Zahrul Muttaqin presented a business perspective of “no burn” land clearing approaches in forest management. “No burn” methods of land clearing make economic and environmental sense. However, the lack of sufficient infrastructure and the increased threat of pests and diseases make them unattractive to the private sector. Public policy intervention is required to implement the “no burn” methods.

Dr. Peter Moore (on behalf of Mr. Bill Jackson of IUCN) gave a presentation on the role of local indigenous communities use of fire in forest management and conservation and its effects on forest ecosystems. Experience from Central America demonstrated that there were hardly any uncontrolled fires in indigenously managed lands. Thus, it was emphasized that indigenous people should be the key actors in designing and implementing fire management policies and practices.

Lunch Presentation
A lunch presentation was given by Ms. Angele Luh-Mbazoa from Cameroon on the role of media in forestry and environmental issues in the Congo Basin.

Afternoon Session
The afternoon session, chaired by Mr. Egon Cayosa, President of “NGOs for Integrated Protected Areas” (NIPA, Inc.), focused on the legal aspects and policy options of long-term forest fire management.

The following presentations were made:

SMH Tampubolon (Bogor University): Roles of Policy and Resource Management Stakeholders.
Mubariq Ahmad (Indonesia Ecolabeling Institute): Institutional, Legal and Policy Aspects of Forest Land-Use.
Merrilyn Wasson (ANU – Australia): International and Regional Policy Responses to Transboundary Pollution from Forest Fires.

Dr. SMH Tampubolon analyzed the roles of policy and resource management stakeholders in land-use planning and management in order to reduce the impacts of transboundary pollution from fires in Southeast Asia. It was noted that the fundamental problem arose from the existence of a set of inconsistent and conflicting macro and micro policies in the context of meeting the food and fiber needs of Indonesia. For plantation companies land clearing via burning was rational; so was the concern of the government to prevent burning. Such conflicts in stakeholder perceptions can be resolved through a combination of policies. At the macro level, some are an appropriate pattern of industrialization, rational exchange rates, interest rates and access to credit. Some key micro-level policies areincentives for no-burn techniques, surveillance systems, and adequate enforcement of rules and regulations.

Dr. Mubariq Ahmad sketched the interactions between the economic development and recent economic crisis in Indonesia, and the forestry sector. He also discussed the impact of the IMF program, the World Bank aid and the Social Safety Net Program, and the ongoing political reforms (the reformasi) on the sector. He made a strong case that each of the ongoing changes provided clear opportunities to rationalize land-use in general and forest management in particular and these opportunities should be fully availed of.

Dr. Merrilyn Wasson from the Australian National University focused on the international and regional policy responses to transboundary pollution from Indonesias forest fires. In the ASEAN (regional) context it was suggested that the Principle of Non-Intervention (which forms the basis of ASEAN cooperation for regional security) be “supplemented” by the possibility of cross-jurisdictional litigation. In the international context, the Kyoto negotiations over forests as sources and sinks of carbon coincided with the forest fires in Indonesia and this coincidence ensured both, international efforts to douse fires, and internationally guided policy responses to assist policy reforms in Indonesias forestry sector. It was concluded that the latter efforts would benefit from coordination between the IMF and the World Bank. Finally, she suggested that the ILO needs to play a significant role especially in assisting indigenous people to manage forest concessions.

Saturday, December 12

The morning session was devoted to the discussion in three break-out groups on the social, economic, and the technical/ecological aspects of sustainable forestry. The composition of each group is reported in Annex 3.

The recommendations were presented in a plenary session in the afternoon, chaired by Mr. Carlos E. Bertao. The recommendations of the discussion groups were the following:

i) Social Issues: The group examining the social issues related to sustainable forestry identified several constraints to successful forest management. An indicative list is (a) lack of clarity of tenure; (b) lack of integrated land use planning; (c) inequitable distribution of costs and benefits and lack of proper incentives; (d) lack of community participation in critical decision-making; (e) failure to use traditional knowledge; (f) lack of an enabling legal framework; (g) corruption and lack of transparency; and (h) lack of political will.

The key recommendations of the group are as follows:

collection organization and dissemination of reliable data;
integration of data into a comprehensive land-use strategy;
develop mediation and negotiation skills to involve different stakeholders in forest management;
use mass media to promote awareness and public consultations;
capacity building at the local community level and a greater role for the community; and
designation of a lead agency for forest management and clarification of the roles and responsibilities of other agencies.

ii) Technical and Ecological Issues: The group examining the technical and ecological issues related to sustainable forestry identified the following four constraints to sustainable forest management: (i) inadequate / inappropriate land use planning, (ii) inadequate forest resource management plans and their enforcement, (iii) inadequacy or lack of information exchange, awareness and education, and (iv) inadequate environmental monitoring.

The key recommendations of the group are as follows:

development of land use plans based on land capability determined through scientific assessments in consultation with stakeholders;
development and implementation of management plans for all categories of forests, internal and external monitoring of forest management based on standard and acceptable sustainability criteria;
development of fire risk assessments and early warning systems;
enabling policies and legislation to ensure institutionalized free flow of information and data within various agencies in the sector, between related sector within the country, among countries of the region and international institutions;
development and institutionalized implementation of comprehensive education and awareness programs pertaining to fire and haze, transboundary atmospheric pollution, soil erosion, water pollution, etc.;
removing institutional inadequacies in the issuance of business activity permits without due considerations of environmental impact assessment;
remove conflicting policies and implement enabling legislation;
reform forestry bureaucracy and define clear responsibilities;
promote transparency and public consultation;
promote donor coordination, collaboration and cooperation; and
foster the political will and the commitment to make hard choices.

iii) Economic Issues: The group examining the economic issues related to sustainable forestry identified the following three main constraints to sustainable forest management: (a) policy distortions in the forestry sector; (b) policy distortions outside the sector but exerting a strong influence in forestry; and (c) lack of regional coordination among forest-rich countries.

The main recommendations proposed by the group were:

formulation of clearly articulated national land use policies specifically demarcating the areas of production, conservation and conversion forests;
formulation of a national forest management strategy/plan incorporating technical and policy aspects related to forest harvesting, timber pricing, forest charges, timber trade, ecolabeling, and certification;
environmental impact assessment must be mandatory and comprehensive for all projects;
identification of the national and regional policy gaps by sharing information and experiences across countries in the region; and
ensure that the impacts of policies outside the forestry sector (exchange rate, industrialization, agriculture expansion, etc.) do not have undesirable repercussions in forestry.

3. Evaluation of the Workshop

The workshop was largely successful in meeting its objectives. This was made possible because of the high quality of the resource persons and the presentations, an informed and highly motivated group of participants including the core group, adequate time for participatory discussions and summarizing the proceedings via thematic breakout groups. The workshop was evaluated on the basis of a questionnaire. On a five-point scale, the workshop was rated 4.2 as regards its overall usefulness to participants.

4. Follow-up Activities

Second Interregional Activity: In close consultation with the core group members of the program it has been decided that the second international activity will be convened in Venezuela. Conserving Forests through Carbon Sequestration will be the thematic focus of the activity that is scheduled to take place in early March 1999, preceded by a field trip to Puerto Ordaz (Venezuela).

Regional Workshop in East Asia: Based on the recommendations of the Surabaya workshop a follow-up is planned for September 1999 (in Vietnam), focusing on the policy reform process in forestry.

For further details please contact either:

Carlos E. Bertao
Senior Operations Officer Environment and Natural Resources Division,
World Bank Institute
Ph./Fax: 202-473-4117/202-676-0977
e-mail: cbertao@worldbank.org or Nalin Kishor
Nat. Resource Economist
Ph./Fax: 202-473-8672/202-676-0977
e-mail: nkishor@worldbank.org

World Bank
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24. November 2017/by GFMCadmin