The rainforests in Central Africa which cover much of the two Congos, Gabon, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and a small corner of the Central African Republic, make up the single largest area of rainforest in the world after the Amazon. And they are being chopped down at the rate of 4m hectares a year. Unless this logging is brought under control, the forests which have existed for 15,000 years, and the animals that live in them will be gone by the year 2020. The WWF, having decided against a big publicity campaign, is going in for discreet arm-twisting. It hopes to presuade the presidents of the various countries, who have ultimate say on who gets teh logging concessions, that they too can gather green credentials. The mainstay of this policy is a formal alliance the WWF has made with the World Bank. Under this, when the Bank is considering the financial requirements of one of the countries, it will take into account whether logging is being carried out in a sustainable manner.