Report counters World Bank’s ‘High Risk/High Reward’ strategy
As World Bank representatives gather in Dubai for the 2003 World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings, Environmental Defense, Friends of the Earth, and International Rivers Network released a report in response to the World Bank’s new “high risk/high reward” strategy in the water, forestry, and extractive industries sectors. The report, Gambling With People’s Lives, analyzes the World Bank’s ability to manage social and environmental risks in high-risk projects and to learn from its past mistakes.
“The World Bank is playing a reckless, high-stakes game of roulette, where the poor — and not the Bank — stand to lose big,” said Environmental Defense policy analyst Shannon Lawrence. “While the Bank and private investors are shielded from project risk, the communities affected by its projects have no such guarantees.”
One of the Bank’s most important environmental reforms of the 1990s was its more cautious approach to high-risk infrastructure and forestry projects. This policy is now being reversed. The World Bank recently announced that it would re-engage in contentious water projects such as large dams in what it refers to as a “high risk/high reward” strategy. In 2002, the Bank dismissed its “risk-averse” approach to the forest sector when it approved a new forest policy. The World Bank is also considering support for new oil, mining, and gas projects in unstable and poorly governed countries, against the recommendations of its own evaluation unit.
The report recommends, among other things, that the World Bank repair the damage caused by its previous high-risk projects, stay away from new high-risk projects, and address the human rights dimensions of its work. (Friends of the Earth International)

ELF strikes against urban sprawl in San Diego
Through media reports, the ELF Press Office has been made aware of an Earth Liberation Front action against urban sprawl in the early morning hours of Sept. 19, 2003. Although the ELF Press Office has received no communications about this action from the persons responsible, a banner found at the site of the fires reading “Development destruction. Stop raping nature. The ELFs are angry,” indicates a claim of responsibility by ELF activists. The fires broke out at approximately 4am in the upscale Carmel Valley neighborhood of San Diego, California.
The fires took out four houses under construction in two parts of the neighborhood and caused an estimated $1 million in damages. This is the fifth action in 2003 against urban sprawl known to have been the work of the Earth Liberation Front. It is clear from past statements and recent actions of the ELF that urban sprawl has become a central issue in the struggle to protect the earth.
The Earth Liberation Front is an international underground organization that uses direct action in the form of economic sabotage to stop the destruction of the natural environment. Since 1997, the ELF in North America has caused over $100 million in damages to entities who profit from the destruction of life and the planet. (Frontline Information Service)