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Project 1: Sustainable Use of Forests
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| Geographic Focus: Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Congo, DR Congo, Cameroon, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia. | |
The goal of the research activity is to promote the sustainable use of primary and secondary forests and forest plantations and the adoption of appropriate forest management practices that allow competitive and sustainable production of goods and services. The research has objectives of:
- Promoting best practices and locally adapted strategies and frameworks for managing forests so that the operations will be competitive and produce timber and other goods and services sustainably.
- Encouraging actions that will ensure a sustainable supply of raw materials for forest-based industries.
The target ecoregions of this research are Amazon Basin (Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru) in South America, Central Africa (Congo, DRC, Cameroon), and East and South-East Asia (China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia).
A. Identification of Best Practices, Regulations and Criteria for Sustainable Forest Management
  The research aims for identifying best practices, regulations and criteria that will help to encourage the use of sustainable forest management (SFM) practices that are not currently widely adopted. To do so tools and methods will be developed for improving smallholder and community forest management practices and forestry enterprises, to make them more competitive and make their raw material supply more sustainable. Although in many tropical countries, plantation and natural forest operations are not managed adequately for long-term sustainability, forest-based industries are expanding to meet the growing demand for timber and wood fibre.
B. Analysis of the Long-term Sustainability of the Supply of Forest Products from Natural and Plantation Forests
The research is analyzing and developing tools to study and model the long-term sustainability of the supply of timber, fibre and other forest products from natural forests and plantations. In addition, implications of current harvesting rates for forest dependant communities, and important natural resources, such as water and carbon are analyzed.
See also: Leveling The Playing Field Project website
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