Global Witness - Breaking the links between natural resources, conflict and corruption
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making the forest sector transparent
~~ New! 2009 Report Card website and press release
Making the Forest Sector Transparent is working with civil society groups in forest-rich countries to engage with policy makers and advocate for capable, responsive and accountable forest sector governance. The project supports local environmental and human rights campaigners in up to eight countries to monitor transparency and to advocate on issues of importance to local communities.
We launched the first ever Forest Sector Transparency Report Card, as a website, on 21 January 2009. The pilot report card consists of some seventy 'yes/no' questions on the availability of information across 15 themes, including:
- Freedom of information laws
- Forest policy and laws
- Forest and land tenure
- Permit allocation process
- Logging operations
- Oil / mining permits and information
- Taxes, revenues, and redistribution
The report assesses and compares this information critical to forest use and management in four countries: Peru, Ghana, Cameroon and Liberia. It takes a right-based approach, looking top-down at the legal obligations each state has to enhance transparency and participation in decision making (including reference to the individual country Constitution, any Freedom of Information legislation, and any sector-specific laws), and bottom-up, working with forest-dependent communities to identify information needs in order that communities can assert their rights, and hold duty-bearers (government and others) to account.
For further information please go to our dedicated Forest Transparency Report Card website (opens in new window).
Other links:
January 2010 Global Witness launches pioneering forest transparency website press release html or pdf (English only)
June 2009 Project Update (English only)
November 2008 project-launch press release (also available in French and Spanish).
The project team can be contacted on im@globalwitness.org or foresttransparency@globalwitness.org.
Latest Publications
March 2010
Landmark oil and mining transparency initiative faces credibility test as key deadline passes
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a pioneering initiative to bring more openness to the world's oil and mining industries, faces a major credibility test after 20 out of 22 countries failed to meet a key deadline today.
Global Witness urges Cambodia’s donors to condemn sponsorship of military units by private businesses
Aid donors to Cambodia, including the US, EU, Japan, China and the World Bank, should send a strong message to the government that they will not countenance the bankrolling of Cambodia’s military by private businesses. This call follows the announcement last week by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen of the formation of 42 official partnerships between private businesses and Cambodian military units.
February 2010
A near miss? Lessons learnt from the allocation of mining licences in the Gola Forest Reserve in Sierra Leone
Between 2005 and 2007, two mining licences were issued in the Gola Forest Reserve in Sierra Leone, even though the area was a proposed national park. This new report identifies weaknesses in Sierra Leone's natural resource governance and attempts to draw lessons for the future.
Parliamentary committee report on libel, privacy and press freedom not strong enough to defend public interest reporting
A report on press standards, privacy and libel makes broadly sensible recommendations but does not go far enough to allay fears that England's laws are a barrier to public-interest campaigning.
Campaigners criticise proposals to define palm oil plantations as forests
The Ecosystems Climate Alliance today criticised the EU and Indonesia for attempting to reclassify palm oil plantations as forests, saying this would be a step backwards in efforts to halt climate change though preventing deforestation.
28 countries accused of facilitating money laundering … but key offenders missing
An international financial crime watchdog has named and shamed countries that are failing to stop dirty money entering the financial system, a move welcomed by Global Witness. However, conspicuously absent are major financial centres and secrecy jurisdictions, many of which also have serious weaknesses in their anti-money laundering regulations.
Metals in mobile phones financing brutal war in Congo
Metals found in everyday electronics items, such as mobile phones and computers, are being mined illegally in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and funding a conflict that has caused millions of deaths, said Global Witness on the opening day of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
