Nicaragua gets Sustainable Forestry Investment
Environmental News Network

(ENN) -- Nicaragua will be the recipient of a $9-million
investment from the World Bank to start reforestation and
land rehabilitation activities in some of the areas most
affected by Hurricane Mitch, the international lending
organization has announced.

According to the bank, one of the major obstacles
currently facing Nicaragua's forestry management is the lack
of entrepreneurial expertise to take advantage of existing
opportunities for a more effective, productive and sustainable
management of forest and land resources.

"Unless a good market for forestry products can be developed,
trees will continue to be looked upon as obstacles to agriculture
and be cut down or burnt down, since they present no economic
benefit for the landowner or shifting cultivator" said Paola Agostini,
environmental economist of the World Bank and task manager
of the project.

The Sustainable Forestry Investment Promotion Project will
establish a basis for improved forestry management by promoting
environmentally-sound private sector investments by improving
the business environment and reducing the perception of risk
in forestry sector activities and by helping to define forestry
institutional policies and reforms through a participatory process.

Participation will build the capacity, consensus, and constituency
necessary for a successful and long term implementation.

Specifically, the project will provide technical assistance:

* to create and operate a Sustainable Forestry Investment
Promotion Office for the development of certification
of sustainable forestry practices and for the promotion
of investment in sustainable forestry and reforestation
* and to develop a national forestry policy strategy with
existing governmental agencies concerned with
agriculture and forestry, environment, industry,
exports and development, and with the private sector
and civil society.

The project will also support a grants program to finance
pilot projects for private and communal forestry entrepreneurs.

Since 1950, forest cover in Nicaragua has fallen from 7
million hectares to an estimated 4.3 million hectares. At current
rates, it is estimated that the remaining areas of productive
broadleaf forests will be eliminated in only 10 to 15 years.

According to the World Bank, it is clear that deforestation
caused by human development and the expansion of the
agriculture frontier has increased the devastating effects of
Hurricane Mitch.

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