Cote d'Ivoire
It has been nineteen years since the IMF’s first adjustment program was introduced in Cote d’Ivoire, and the
country has been on and off IMF programs ever since,
instituting structural adjustment policies including liberalization
of pricing systems and intensification of
exports. The 1990s have been marked by a more sustained
effort by the government to pursue policies for
fiscal and structural reform. As a result of SAPs, Cote d’Ivoire devalued its currency
in 1992, and eliminated export taxes creating incentives
for increased agricultural output. These policy
changes yielded significant results. While the overall
diversification of agricultural exports increased slightly,
cocoa exports rose considerably. From 1992 to 1996
cocoa production increased by 44 percent with exports
growing by an annual average rate of 11 percent from
1994 to 1996.1 In 1995 Cote d’Ivoire liberalized its
domestic market, further spurring the output and
export of cocoa of which Cote d’Ivoire is the world’s
leading producer. While adjustment measures in the
agricultural sector resulted in an economic boost, there
were also significant changes in land use. From 1980
to 1996, land used for crops such as cocoa increased
from 7.2 percent to 13.5 percent of total whole land
area.2 Following liberalization, the area under cultivation
for cocoa production increased dramatically from
1500 hectares in 1994 to 1950 hectares in 1995.3
Rising cocoa output has been the primary source of
decreased forest cover which now equals 3.9 million
hectares, a small fraction of the 12 million present in
1960. Belatedly recognizing the threat that twenty years
of export-led agricultural development has wrought,
the Policy Framework Paper (PFP)** for 1998-2000
states that the country’s environment and forests are
"faced with a number of problems, particularly soil
degradation, deforestation, the loss of biodiversity and
pollution."
Although the latter half of the 1990s has seen some
government efforts to protect its remaining forests, illegal
cocoa and coffee planters have been taking out
trees in protected forest areas in order to expand cropland.
In 1997, 30 percent of protected forests were
"illegally occupied" by farmers growing up to 100,000
tons of cocoa (roughly 1/10 of the 1996/97 crop).4
Long-term environmental stability is at risk as cocoa
and coffee production is moved to new areas as soils
become exhausted.5
At the same time, the IMF Policy Framework Paper
praises the competitive gains in export volumes that
Cote d’Ivoire was able to maintain through the currency
devaluation. In looking towards further economic
growth, the IMF recommends "vigorous liberalization
of the economy, particularly in the coffee and cocoa
sectors," and establishing incentives for accelerating the
development and diversification of the agricultural sector.
It is this very liberalization that has contributed to
the land clearing and soil exhaustion in Cote d’Ivoire
in the first place.
But unsustainable agricultural practices are not the
only problem in Cote d’Ivoire. IMF policy prescriptions
for 1999-2000 include a big push for mining. The plan
calls on the government to "transform the mining and
petroleum sector by the year 2000 into one of the critical
sectors of the economy, alongside agriculture." The
IMF is relying on the exploitation of Cote d’Ivoire’s
natural resources to generate critical foreign exchange.
The problem is that the foreign exchange often comes
at the cost of environmental degradation leaving the...
**The Policy Framework Paper (PFP) is the document that sets out the eco-nomic
policies that a government agrees to adopt as part of its agreement with
the IMF. The PFP is technically a government document, though it has been
widely reported as being written by the IMF. The PFP was replaced at the end
of 1999 with a new document—the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper.)
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