SEARCHING FOR NEW WAYS OF FINANCING SUSTAINABLE FOREST MANAGEMENT

摘要

One of the main topics for discussion at the upcoming twentieth session of the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission (APFC), to be held 19-23 April, in Fiji, is "financing sustainable forest management." Sound forest management costs money - money that is often in scarce supply, especially as traditional sources of funding are in decline. The most important source of funds for sustainable forest management is timber itself. Sound forest management can generate steady and significant timber revenues that can and should be plowed back into management of the resource. But according to the International Tropical Timber Organization's (ITTO) "Annual. Review and Assessment of the World Timber Situation," the value of primary timber products derived from natural forests each year has declined some 40 percent since 1990 - from US$13 billion to only US$8 billion. The fact that the value of secondary products has tripled during the same period is not much consolation to primary timber producers (i.e. the legal producers) who have seen their fortunes decline substantially in recent times.