Accelerating the development of markets for forest ecosystem services.

Because these markets are embryonic in development and new innovative approaches are scattered globally, our program focused on strengthening the enabling environment for these markets. This includes identifying, analyzing and disseminating information on best practice and key innovations, and supporting efforts to establish frameworks and instruments that are perceived as fair and appropriate among the divergent groups active in these markets. Since there are some emerging transactions in environmental services, we provide limited technical assistance to high profile cases that yield lessons for the global market.

We have two specific objectives:
1. contribute to the development of new market transactions for environmental services in critical forest areas while improving the understanding of market issues and instruments among key players;
2. contribute to the development of enabling environment for markets for ecosystem services in key areas of the world.

Expanding markets and investments that encourage improved forest management and more rational consumption of forest products.

Innovations in forest management practices that move toward sustainability remain at the margin. Certification has become a powerful new driver to improve forest practices, yet this success has been largely limited to temperate forests and the market places of Europe and the U.S. But the potential effect of certification is limited. For sustainable forestry to take hold there needs to be a significant innovation in the investment community. As with certification, new investments in sustainable forestry have been very few and limited to Europe and the U.S. The lack of penetration of certification and new investments in the Amazon, Mexico and the Asia-Pacific Rim, home to some of the most expansive and threatened forests and largest forest markets, makes focus on these regions a priority. For these reasons, there is important work to be done both in building markets for certified forest products where markets are weak, and in facilitating positive, discerning transactions and investments where markets are stronger. This program builds on our successful conferences in Amsterdam 1999 and Brazil in 2000 strengthening buyers groups and expanding markets for certified wood, as well as our previous work on investment. Our focus is on key importing countries and regions including China, Japan, and Southern Brazil, and key exporting countries and regions including the Amazon, the Russian Far East, and South East Asia. In order to build incentives for improved management we also seek to create more discerning investment in forest production and industry in the key exporting countries and work to reduce consumption of products from endangered forests in key importing and consuming countries.

Our specific objectives are to:
1. contribute to establishing new markets and investments for improved forest management in critical forest areas in the Pacific Rim Region;
2. contribute to the development and establishment of a financial infrastructure for sustainable forestry; and
3. contribute to the reduction of consumption of wood products from endangered forests and the development of ecologically sound alternatives to low-valued products manufactured with virgin fiber.

Promoting markets that improve livelihoods of forest communities.

This program focuses on critical forest countries where communities own or claim a large portion of the forest estate. We will work with communities that are already engaged in commercial activities, complementing the work of other organizations that focus on strengthening the political position and organizational capacity of local groups. And, we will pay particular attention to the growing trend of community-industry partnerships, looking for ways to improve these interactions for the benefit of communities and sustainable conservation. Based on these criteria we will focus our work initially on Mexico and Brazil, and China.

This program has two overarching objectives, to:
1. catalyze productive connections for community organizations in selected critical forest areas; and
2. foment understanding of market constraints and opportunities and of policy issues impacting community forests among key market players in targeted countries.