The Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation (MoFSC) last month had proclaimed that the IDA (International Development Association) Fund, which is interest-free WB assistance, worth $9 million would be used specifically for resettling the forest encroachers along border areas, including Laljhari, Basanta and Khata. Myrepublica.com reported the story on July 17. [break]
“World Bank is unable to fund the resettlement plan of the government of Nepal for the forest encroachers along the border areas,” Sumith Pilapitiya, the Lead Environmental Specialist, Environment, Water Resources & Climate Change, of the World Bank Office in Colombo, told myrepublica.com.
In a phone interview, Pilapitiya said, “The primary objective of the IDA Fund is to support programs on wildlife conservation and illegal trade in animal parts. And although the resettlement plan would come in the larger scope of that objective, the World Bank fund will not be given for the same.”
He informed that IDA is a regional assistance and the World Bank is engaged in dialogues with the governments of Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and India. Pilapitiya said, “We have written request from Nepal and Bangladesh, but Bhutan and India have only made verbal requests.”
For the IDA Fund to materialize, the regional Tiger Range Countries must put in the proposal together. Depending on the proposal thereafter, the WB sanctions twice the number of account put in the IDA Fund by respective countries.
Nepal, for instance, has already put $ 3 million dollars in the fund and as per the rule the Bank will allocate twice that amount ($6 million) making the total fund of $9million.
Asked whether the information given by the ministry was false, Pilapitiya said, “The information that we were going to fund the resettlement is entirely incorrect and no agreement has been signed with Nepal government in this regard.”
World Bank office in Nepal will be sending a letter of clarification in this regard to the MoFSC.
Forest Minister Deepak Bohara had said then that the fund was specifically going for resettlement plan. He had later also said that it could be used for curbing illegal trade.
Pilapitiya informed that request from Nepal will be forwarded for official approval to the concerned WB authorities in the end of October.
Asked to comment, Minister Bohara said, “It now appears that it is against the World Bank´s rule to use the IDA Fund for resettlement. So the fund will be used for other purposes.”
Ministry sources have said the encroachers themselves have not approached the government for financial support for resettlement.
akanshya@myrepublica.com
Related story
Govt eyes $9m WB fund to resettle encroachers
_20240309161133.jpg)
