A LOW FOG ENVELOPES the steep and remote valleys of southwestern Uganda most mornings, as birds found only in this small corner of the continent rise in chorus and the great apes drink from clear streams. Days in the dense montane forest are quiet and steamy. Nights are an exaltation of insects and primate howling. For thousands of years the Batwa people thrived in this soundscape, in such close harmony with the forest that early-twentieth-century wildlife biologists who studied the flora and fauna of the region barely noticed their existence.

In October 2002, the World Bank adopted a new policy on forests. Reversing the previous policy which had prohibited the Bank from funding projects that would destroy primary moist tropical forests, the new policy, adopted with the encouragement of the WWF, was aimed at encouraging greater involvement in forestry.
The policy was roundly condemned by many of the NGOs and Indigenous Peoples' organisations that had been involved in the lengthy consultations that had preceded its agreement. The main reasons we contested the policy were that it:

Most Kenyans may have heard of him only through the media. But Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, who died on December 1, was a frequent visitor to Kenya and a big supporter of wildlife conservation. He was also President Kenyatta's good friend and made a point of calling on him every time he visited Kenya. Besides being founder of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), which has a prominent presence in Kenya, Prince Bernhard was until his death the patron of the Gallmann Memorial Foundation. His chequered life has aptly been called colourful by the media.

We call ourselves GRR, Rural Reflection Group, in relation to a proposal made by a conglomerate of NGOs and cereal and biotechnology companies from Argentina and Europe to implement a model of sustainable soya.