Publications

Linking FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreements to Jobs and Growth

Potential Challenges and Benefits for Small and Medium Sized Forest Enterprises

This brief report discusses the potential impact of the European Commission’s Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) on the extent to which improved investment and business climates supported by VPA programs can support the small and medium forest enterprise (SMFE) sector. Recognizing the important roles that SMFEs play in rural development and the alleviation of rural poverty, […]

Forest Products Trade Between China & Africa

An Analysis of Imports & Exports

Recent reports of China’s efforts to secure access to natural resources in Africa suggest that timber has already become an important traded commodity between China and the African continent. Many hold a general impression that Africa exports a significant and growing amount of timber to China. However, the true magnitude of the China-Africa forest product […]

Forest Certification and Communities

Looking Forward to the Next Decade

This review looks at the experience with communities and certification as the first in a series of systematic reviews of certification. The analysis includes an assessment of community experiences with certification to date, an evaluation of the range of direct and indirect impacts on communities in different geographic regions, and an examination of the strategic […]

Dependent Documents

Annex 1: Forest Certification in Brazil

The Parallel Evolution of Community Forest Management in the Brazilian Amazon and FSC Certification

Annex 2: Forest Certification in Guatemala

The Process of Forest Certification in the Mayan Biosphere Reserve in Petan, Guatemala

By Carlos Soza - Forest Trends

Annex 3: Forest Certification in Mexico

Certification in Mexico: The Cases of Durango and Oaxaca

By Sergio Madrid, Francisco Chapela - CCMSS, ERA, Forest Trends

China and the Global Market for Forest Products

Transforming Trade to Benefit Forests and Livelihoods

China’s spectacular economic growth over the last decade is having a dramatic impact throughout the world. It has become a leading nation in terms of its demand for forest products, and its influence is being felt as far afield as Cameroon and Cambodia, Indonesia and the United States. China is now in the world’s spotlight, […]

Carbon Forestry Projects in Developing Countries

Legal Issues and Tools

Increasing awareness of the need for action on global warming has produced a search for ways to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to sequester carbon to offset such emissions. At the present time, nations around the globe are hotly debating whether to put into force the Kyoto Protocol. To comply with such climate controls, […]

Forest Certification and Governments

The Real and Potential Influence on Regulatory Frameworks and Forest Policies

This paper is one of a series of reviews that cover critical challenges for the continued growth of certification to impact sustainable forestry around the globe. Each chapter attempts to gather as many cases as possible and to include a large and broad number of contributors. The chapters are meant to inform the forest community […]

China’s Impact on Papua New Guinea’s Forestry Industry

The harvesting and export of timber forms an important part of the Papua New Guinea national economy, and China is one of its most significant trading partners. China is the principal market for round logs from Papua New Guinea; it imported over one million cubic meters of logs from PNG in 2002. China’s imports of […]

Forest Carbon and Local Livelihoods

Assessments of Opportunities and Policy Recommendations

This paper brings together insights from emerging forestry and conservation paradigms and investigates their relevance for the debate on the social impact of CDM forestry.

Opportunities and Constraints to Investment

Natural Tropical Forest Industries

The global forest products industry represents close to 3% of the world’s gross economic output, and the forests upon which it depends are particularly important ecosystems for the health of the planet and for human well-being. The size of the industry, its links to the rest-of-the-world economy, and the centrality of its resource base to […]

Risk Mitigation in Forestry

Linkages with Kyoto and Sustainable Forestry Management

This paper aims to illustrate some of the new influences which are affecting the forestry sector globally; it also highlights some of the opportunities and constraints which are becoming apparent. The report focuses on the role of forestry within the climate change debate. This has been done for two reasons; first, because the sector plays […]