KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congo, home to the world's second largest tropical forest, launched a review of all timber contracts on Wednesday in an effort to clean up a business rife with corruption and to recoup millions of dollars in lost taxes.

Thanks to all who wrote letters to the World Bank, urging it to stop financing industrial logging in the Congo, the world's second-largest rainforest. Our letters demanded that the Bank carry out consultations with indigenous "Pygmy" communities throughout the vast rainforest region, and honor their needs and rights regarding any logging plan.

Under pressure, the Bank's Inspection Panel undertook an investigation of the Bank's policies and practices in the Congo. The Panel's report, just released, finds the Bank in violation of many of its own policies and standards.

YAOUNDE -- Two-thirds of the forests in the Congo River Basin could disappear within 50 years if logging and mineral exploitation continues at current rates, environmental group WWF said in a report.