This review aims to provide the
Government of Madagascar with a situation assessment and
insights and guidance on how to position the rural and
environment sector as an engine for inclusive and
sustainable economic growth. The review has cast the
analytical net quite widely with the aim to come up with a
comprehensive overview of the sector. In view of the
intimate linkages between rural development and the

This case study is one of six
evaluations of the implementation of the World Bank's
1991 Forest Strategy. This and the other cases (Brazil,
Cameroon, China, Costa Rica, and India) complement a review
of the entire set of lending and nonlending activities of
the World Bank Group and the Global Environment Facility. A
review of World Bank assistance to Indonesia in the forest
sector since 1991 faces two challenges. The first is

The majority of Ethiopians depend on
medical plants as their only source of health care,
especially in rural areas where access to villages is
lacking due to the absence of vehicular roads. The
increasing scarcity of medicinal plant species represents a
trend that should be immediately addressed. The health and
drug policies of the Ethiopian Ministry of Health recognize
the important role medical plants and traditional health

This case study is one of six
evaluations of the implementation of the World Bank's
1991 Forest Strategy. This and the other cases (Brazil,
Cameroon, Costa Rica, India, and Indonesia) complement a
review of the entire set of lending and nonlending
activities of the World Bank Group and the Global
Environment Facility. This OED study finds that while
China's forest program was highly successful, much

The note reviews the cultural role of
traditional healers in communities in Ghana, and Zambia, as
one of the best hopes for treating, and stemming the spread
of AIDS. However, healers rely on medicinal plants which
have significantly decreased, as their habitats are lost
through deforestation, cultivation, overgrazing, burning
droughts, and desertification among others. This has been
exacerbated by poor management of local, and international

The Little Green Data Book represents a
succinct collection of information from the World
Development Indicators 2002, and its accompanying CD-ROM.
The data compiled in this issue corresponds to the period
between 1997 and 2000, unless otherwise noted, for the
headings of agriculture, forests, biodiversity, energy,
emissions and pollution, water and sanitation, and
"greener" national accounts aggregates - 2000,

Forestry contributes 7-10 percent of Lao
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 15-20 percent of
non-agricultural GDP. In rural areas forest exploitation is
one of the few available economic activities, and non-timber
products provide more than half of family income. The sector
contributes 34 percent of total export value, and even more
of net foreign exchange. Forestry royalties as a share of
government revenues have decreased from 20 percent in the

Over two decades, the World Bank has
undertaken many structural adjustment operations with
governments of developing countries. During negotiations for
structural adjustment loans (SALs), partner governments
agree to specific policy reforms, whose implementation
becomes a condition for disbursement of SAL funds.
Conditionality varies with local circumstances, but
generally supports privatization of state enterprises,

Within the sub-region of West Central
Africa (Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana,
Niger, Nigeria, and Togo) several countries have completed
National Environmental Action Plans (NEAPs). Some are
implementing environmental support programs based on these
plans, as well as more site-specific natural resource
management, urban environmental management, and biodiversity
conservation projects. The report notes some success

Between 1970 and 1992, the World Bank
assisted financially in about 15 wildlife-related projects
in Sub-Saharan Africa. The lending volume was US$ 368
million or about 1percent of the Bank's totals lending
during the same period. While geographically, these projects
have been concentrated in East Africa, especially Kenya, the
others are located in Somali, Malawi, Botswana, Cote
d'Ivoire, Zimbabwe, Ghana, the Central African

The Niger Delta is one of the
world's largest wetlands and includes by far the
largest mangrove forest in Africa. Within this extremely
valuable ecosystem, oil activities are widespread - Rivers
State and Delta State produce 75 percent of Nigeria's
petroleum, which represents over 50 percent of national
government revenues. However, despite its vast oil reserves,
the region remains poor. Gross National product (GNP) per

Over the past thirty years, most of
Sub-Saharan Africa has seen rapid population growth, poor
agricultural performance, and increasing environmental
degradation. Why do these problems seem so intractable? Are
they connected? Do they reinforce each other? If so, what
are the critical links? This book tests the hypothesis that
these phenomena are strongly interrelated. The finding -
that this nexus is very much at work in Sub-Saharan Africa -