European EnvironmentEur. Env. 8, 139–140 (1998)

BOOK REVIEWS

FOREST IN INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTALPOLITICS. INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS,NGOs AND THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON by Ans Kolk,1996. International Books, 336 pp, £19.99 (pbk). ISBN90 5727 002 1

Twenty years ago, the nascent European environmentalmovement was split down the middle between what wemight call ‘travellers’ and ‘settlers’. Travellers believed thatthe most urgent environmental challenges were to be foundin the South, and focused efforts on the conservation ofspectacular wildlife in the tropics. Settlers argued that wehad no right to lecture anyone about conservation when ourown environment was in such a mess. They questioned themoral and political wisdom of people from former colonialpowers trying to dictate events in countries which had onlyejected their long-time rulers a few years previously. Aloose-knit alliance formed with political allegiances rangingfrom liberal parties through a mixture of left, anarchist andpacifist groups to organic farmers, alternative technologistsand anti-nuclear activists. A philosophy emerged in bookssuch as Harper and Boyle’s Radical Technology andperiodicals such as the late and lamented Undercurrents.

Yesterday’s settlers form the core of the contemporaryenvironmental movement, perhaps exemplified most clearlyin the UK by the county naturalists’ trusts and the Friends ofthe Earth local groups network. The travellers have alsoprospered, through organizations such as the World WideFund for Nature, and helped create the current globalprotected areas network. Gradually, the two came closertogether, with for example Friends of the Earth running atropical rainforest campaign throughout Europe and manyWWF national organizations working on domestic issuessuch as energy conservation, but the fundamental questionabout whether or not ‘outside’ NGOs have any ethical rightto interfere in national concerns remains a pertinent andcontroversial issue. In this context, Ans Kolk’s book istimely. Brazil has been fiercely protective of its sovereignty,and has responded bitterly to criticism; many will rememberthe aggressive promotion of Amazon deforestation fordevelopment during the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in1992. Yet Brazil has also been almost the holy grail formany environmentalists, with its massive share of bothuntouched rainforests and biodiversity. Kolk provides a

CCC 0961-0405/98/040139–02 $17.50? 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

EUROPEAN ENV

guide through the maze of politics to provide a carefulassessment of a situation that continues to evolve rapidly.

He starts by discussing the inherent conflicts between thepromotion of on the one hand an economic free market andon the other a regulatory approach to the environment.One of the results, he argues, has been a revival of theNorth – South conflict with respect to the environment, andhe cites the way that Southern countries closed ranks at theEarth Summit as an example. He goes on to look at thevarious stages in international concern about the Amazonand responses from the Brazilians: the uneasy relationshipbetween Brazilian nationalism and the desire for inter-national business; the land rights issue; an emerging alliancebetween domestic and international NGOs and growingpressure from the international community, backed by afinancial carrot and stick approach of suspended loans andeconomic incentives. Flashpoints include the internationaloutcry at the murder of the Indian rubber tappers’ leaderChico Mendes and the changing fortunes of the German-backed Pilot Programme for the Brazilian Amazon, whichalso involved the World Bank. Kolk finishes, rightly, with ananalysis of the changing role of the World Bank and theroles and infighting within the environmental movement.

The book raises more questions than it answers. Kolkpoints out that some of the US groups which have beenmost radical in lobbying the World Bank actually promotequite conservative approaches at home, forming links withindustry and advocating market-orientated solutions.Although he discusses coalitions between Northern andSouthern NGOs, most Brazilian conservationists wouldrank threats to the Atlantic rainforest – currently at 2%of its original area and the most diverse temperate forestin the world – as being of higher priority. Furthermore,are environmental solutions that only emerge underpressure from some of the world’s most powerful financialinstitutions either justified or sustainable?

Kolk’s book has inevitably been overtaken by events.This year has seen the worst forest fires in Brazil since atleast 1925. Conversely, the Brazilian government has justagreed a series of new protected areas that could eventuallysee an additional 3 million hectares of forests under protec-tion. The government accepted a $5 million loan from theWorld Bank to combat fires, marking a major reversal in acountry that has always studiously avoided such ‘interfer-ence’. Yet, in May, the Brazilian government tried to blockNGOs from attending meetings of the Convention onBiological Diversity in Slovakia and the conflict is evidently

IRONMENT

detailed candidate framework. In a similar vein, NancyKamp-Roelands reports on the degree to which environ-mental reports can be formally judged by external auditors.In her view, there is an increasing role for guidelines thatprovide a benchmark against which auditors can evaluatewhether the environmental claims of a firm are credible andadequate.

A central feature of this volume is that some guidancecould be sought with reference to the on-going sustain-ability debate. However, as Jane Bebbington and RobGray point out, this needs to be loaded with caveatswhere, in particular public statements regarding ‘what issustainability’ – e.g. by governments – tend to be rather

BOOK REVIEWS

far from over. Thus Kolk’s book gives us a feel for why weneed to be very careful about the way in which weapproach conservation in other cultures. To some extent,the growing strength of NGOs in the South means thatthese situations will not be replicated exactly in the future,but the same complaints about neocolonialism and doublestandards are also starting to be heard amongst thecountries of the former Soviet Union – currently the targetof much environmental interest in the west.

Nigel DudleyEquilibrium Consultants

ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING AND SUSTAIN-ABLE DEVELOPMENT: THE FINAL REPORT edited byChris Hibbitt and Hans Blokdijk, 1996. Limperg Instituut,151 pp, NLG 45.00 (pbk). ISBN not given

This volume is the culmination of an ambitious workshopthat brought together researchers and practitioners in thefield of environmental accounting and auditing. The FinalReport reflects, in an accessible way, a wide range offrameworks and measurement issues facing any corporateentity wishing to evaluate its environmental performance.As outlined by Martin Bennett and Peter James a possibletaxonomy includes options such as liability assessment,environmental costing (e.g. of processes, products andcapital budgets) and the estimation of external costs arisingas a result of unabated pollution. The resolution of thisagony of choice is in large part aided by selecting, at theoutset, specific target audiences. Unfortunately, as noted byDavid Owen, this clarity of purpose has been lacking inmany past efforts, resulting in questionable usefulness ofsubsequent information. On a more optimistic note, othercontributors to this volume argue that this preliminary trapcan been avoided. For example, Manfred Wirth of DowChemicals writes about the primary concern of his companyto inform its employees and site managers. Externalaudiences – e.g. customers and shareholders – are seen asless of a target group where, as Wirth further notes,decision-makers face a traditional, although gradually reced-ing, fear that providing environmental information mayexpose weaknesses and risk wrong inferences by thefinancial community.

The message is that once an audience has been identified,data collection can be prioritized and reporting formatsdetermined with this group in mind. To the extent thata given firm has an internal audience in mind, its focus islikely to be relatively detailed so as to inform site specificdecisions regarding say, environment-related expendituresas well as more general monitoring data regarding the firm’soverall environmental impact. External audiences will, onthe other hand, desire an easily interpretable focus on thelatter. The extent to which the increasing number ofcompany environmental reports fulfil this need is reviewedby Matteo Bartolmeo and Federica Ranghieri. They arguefor minimum reporting standards and in doing so set out a

vague. Supporting evidence for this claim is revealed in afascinating survey indicating that representatives of manycorporations reflect this lack of guidance by public decision-makers. Indeed, many of those surveyed believed thatsustainability does not involve future generations or con-sidered their firm to be sustainable, begging the question asto what ‘sustainable’ actually means to them. For example, isit the sustainability of the corporation that is the issue or thecontribution of the corporation to sustainability in somewider sense? Arguably the two are related insofar aspollution externalities associated with the generation of firmincome become actual liabilities in the future. Bebbingtonand Gray offer their own candidate definition that a firmshould at a minimum ‘leave the environment no worse off atthe end of each accounting period than at the beginning ofeach period’. While superficially appealing, this does notoffer much that is useful in an operational sense. Elsewherein this chapter it is suggested that corporate sustainabilitydefies precise interpretation, which is likely to be nearer themark.

Nevertheless, other chapters make even stronger claims.For example, Owen appears to argue that social issuesshould, if anything, dominate the accounting challengeinsofar as they are the domain of sustainability. As it stands,Owen’s claim is more of an assertion rather than based on areasoned argument. That is not to say that no connection –between social issues and sustainability – can be made, butrather that it does not appear here (or in other chapters).One case might be made using the concept of social capital’from the wider sustainability literature. Moreover, a greaterreference to some of the findings in the green nationalaccounting literature would have offered much of interest inthe context of this volume, in particular, those issues thatrelate to interpretations of sustainability and frameworks forthe treatment of external pollution caused by firms. Thatsaid, this book should still appeal to a wider audience,especially those familiar with the national but not thecorporate accounting literature. It is to be hoped that, in thefuture, benefits to both groups will be realized by bringingthese two avenues of investigation closer together.

Giles AtkinsonCentre for Social and Economic Research on the GlobalEnvironment (CSERGE), University College London and

University of East Anglia

? 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. Eur. Env. 8, 139–140 (1998)

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