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 […]

Russian Logs in China

The Softwood Commodity Chain & Chinese Economic Development

This paper provides an overview of the commodity-chain process of Russian softwood logs once they enter China, focusing on softwood as the dominant forest products traded from Russia to China. The research then details the economic and social impacts of this trade on local Chinese economies and livelihoods.

Pacific Rim Initiative

A Coordinated Plan for Advancing Sustainable Forestry in the Pacific Rim

The forests of the Pacific Rim are critically important, in both global and local terms, are seriously threatened, and thus merit priority attention from conservationists, governments and private industry. Overall, policy and market failures, inappropriate government subsidies, non-discriminating investments and demand, illegal logging and trade, have all driven over-exploitation and inefficiency in the production and […]

Overview of the Forest Sector in the Russian Far East

Production, Industry and the Problem of Illegal Logging

Russia and China have been bound by long-standing ties since the middle of the 17th century, with mutual trade as an important aspect. It is natural that regions such as the Russian Far East (RFE) and Southeastern Siberia developed firm links with China, because they are the closest neighbors. These relations, particularly in the timber […]

Payment Where It’s Due

The financing and management of natural protected areas has historically been seen as the responsibility of the public sector. However, budgets for government protection and management of forest ecosystem services are declining, as are those from overseas development assistance. At the same time, processes of devolution and decentralization are shifting public responsibility for nature protection, […]

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 […]