Publications

China’s Forest Product Exports

An Overview of Trends by Segment and Destinations

In only 7 years, China’s timber product exports have tripled in volume and increased fourfold in value. The total volume of all forest product exports – including both timber and pulp and paper products – is now one-third of China’s total forest product import volume. The total volume of only primary timber products (excluding pulp […]

Developing Future Ecosystem Service Payments In China

Lessons Learned from International Experience

Across the world, the growing scarcity of ecosystem services has led to a flurry of conservation innovations over the past decade in the form of payment schemes and nascent markets for these services. The global economic value of ecosystem services is estimated in the trillions of dollars, though actual payments for protecting these services are […]

Developing Markets for Water Services from Forests

Issues and Lessons for Innovators

Of the many services that forests provide, hydrological services, such as water quality and water flow, are among the most valuable. As we look ahead into the next decade, water will become an increasingly critical issue as it becomes an increasingly scarce resource. The value of these hydrological services will only grow over time. Policy […]

Beyond Timber

Certification of Non-Timber Forest Products

Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are critical to rural livelihoods in both temperate and tropical areas. They provide communities with important subsistence resources like medicine, food and shelter, as well as a source of cash income. NTFPs are also part of large regional and international markets, and for centuries products such as spices, medicinal plants, fragrances […]

Forestry in China

Policy, Consumption, and Production in Forestry's Newest Superpower

China’s forest market is one of the largest in the world in terms of production, consumption, and imports of wood products. Its large forest estate and massive population has meant that it has also for some time been a leading nation in terms of the number of processing plants, number of people employed in the […]

For Services Rendered

The Current Status and Future Potential of Markets for the Ecosystem Services Provided by Tropical Forests

The past decade has seen the widespread emergence of markets and other payment schemes for forest ecosystem services – such as watershed protection, biodiversity protection and carbon sequestration -around the world. At a global scale, several recent reviews indicate that these activities are nascent and still limited in scope and scale, but that they may […]

Who Conserves the World’s Forests? A New Assessment of Conservation and Investment Trends

The current system of protected areas continues to be severely under-funded while not including enough of the world’s priority biodiversity and natural habitats. At the present coverage and quality of protection, biologists estimate that only 50-70% of the existing species will be conserved. It is the thesis of this paper that current proposals for expanding […]

A New Agenda for Forest Conservation and Poverty Reduction

Making Markets Work for Low-Income Producers

The future of the world’s forests and the future of millions of the world’s poorest people are inextricably linked. Rural poverty is concentrated in many areas where the world’s biodiversity is most threatened. More than a billion people now live within the world’s 19 forest biodiversity “hotspots” and population growth in the world’s tropical wilderness […]

Case Studies of Markets and Innovative Financial Mechanisms for Water Services from Forests

This paper examines existing market and financial mechanisms that are being used to provide hydrological services from watersheds and to assist forest owners and policymakers in assessing the advisability and feasibility of using such mechanisms.

An Overview of the Market Chain for China’s Timber Product Imports from Myanmar

China’s annual timber product imports from Myanmar more than tripled between 1997 and 2002. Although imports from Myanmar comprise just over two percent of China’s total timber product imports, the nascent increase in logging activities along the Chinese border in Myanmar has been highly concentrated in natural forests in Myanmar’s northern Kachin State, and the […]