IMF support for poor countries comes at cost of faster deforestation

Research shows that between 2000 and 2020, IMF programmes were associated with an increase in annual tree cover loss of 9.2%  At a glanceA group of experts, the Task Force on Climate, Development and the IMF, has shown that spending by governments of poor countries to protect forests can easily be cut when financial distress creates a need for IMF support The IMF, the research says, does not deliberately design lending programmes to increase deforestation. But IMF conditionality puts pressure on countries that leads directly to deforestation, argues Frederic Mousseau, policy director at the Oakland Institute in California Mousseau wants the IMF to implement radical change and “stop pretending there is no limit to economic growth in a planet that has limits”