Forests provide an easily accessible commodity for export. Increased exports lead to increased logging. Between 1990 and 1995, forest loss for the 41 most heavily indebted and poor countries greatly exceeded the rate of forest loss worldwide. Approximately three fourths of these countries had an IMF loan during this period. The IMF requires governments to reduce spending.
Environmental protections are one of the first expenditures to be cut.
For example, funding for environmental ministries was cut in response to IMF loan packages in Brazil, Russia and Indonesia nations with some of the most endangered and biologically important forests in the world. To attract foreign investment, countries also increase subsidies to foreign timber corporations. The result is increased logging with greater destruction at unsustainable rates. Finally, the IMF has a history of making the poor poorer by cutting government funding for social programs and increasing taxation. As the poor try to survive, they cut down trees to build makeshift homes and to provide heat for their families.