WWF - Forests for Life Programme resources

BROCHURE: The Journey Towards Sustainable Palm oil in India

2012-03-02

Palm oil is a common ingredient in a wide range of consumer good products found in India.

However, the use of this vegetable oil is linked to global warming and to the loss of some of the most fragile tropical rainforests.

How can Indian companies be part of the solution and ensure they have access to a supply of sustainable palm oil well into the future?

BROCHURE: The Journey Towards Sustainable Palm oil in China

2012-03-02

Palm oil is a common ingredient in a considerable number of consumer good products found in China.

The bad news is that the use of this vegetable oil is linked to global warming and to the loss of some of the most fragile tropical rainforests on Earth.

How can Chinese companies be part of the solution and ensure they have access to a supply of sustainable palm oil well into the future?

REPORT: WWF Palm Oil Buyers' Scorecard 2011

2011-11-24

The Palm Oil Buyers' Scorecard 2011 measures the performance of 132 major retailers and consumer goods manufacturers against 4 areas which show whether these companies are acting responsibly.

The Scorecard focuses on European companies, since they are leading the way in transforming the market for palm oil, and were the first to commit to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

However, it also looks at other markets such as Australia and Japan where some progress is being made. We also compared the performance of some companies assessed in 2011 and in our previous Scorecard in 2009.

GFTN 20th Anniversary Report

2011-09-26

Celebrating 20 Years of Advancing Conservation through Responsible Forestry and Trade

WWF launches database of eco-rated paper products

2011-01-31

WWF today launched a global benchmarking tool for pulp and paper products at PaperWorld in Frankfurt, Germany. Check Your Paper is an online database to help paper buyers find products with the lowest environmental impact.

The tool rates the environmental quality of the paper-making process for a given product, including how well forests supplying fibre are managed, use of recycled fibre, fossil CO2 emissions, waste going to landfills and water pollution from mills. The fibre in all papers featured on the audited list on the website must come from known, legal sources. Paper products posted on the official list have been audited by third-party certification bodies to ensure high credibility.

Check Your Paper at the same time allows pulp and paper manufacturers to voluntarily rate and post their products' environmental impacts online.

Makers of paper products including Arjo Wiggins, ITC Limited Paper Boards and Specialty Papers Division, Mondi, M-real, Lenzing Papier, SCA, Steinbeis Papier, Tullis Russell, and UPM are the first to disclose their selected papers' environmental profile at http://checkyourpaper.panda.org.

As of today, the Check Your Paper includes about 100 paper products with "good" or "excellent" environmental score listed in the coated and uncoated categories, such as copy papers and printing and writing papers.

WWF invites other pulp and paper manufacturers to follow the example of these companies by communicating their products' environmental performance transparently. "We believe this new database will help paper buyers choose the most environmentally friendly papers on the market. WWF invites all paper buyers to check the tool before purchasing and encourage other paper-makers to join Check Your Paper," says Rodney Taylor, Forest Director, WWF International.

"Listing our products in Check Your Paper is an important step in our commitment to augmenting economic, environmental and societal capital and in making environmentally responsible products available to our customers and paper buyers." says P.N. Sridharr, ITC Limited, Paper Boards and Specialty Papers Division, India, one of the manufacturers that have posted their papers' environmental information on the database.

"Over the years SCA has been deeply involved in the development of publication papers with high environmental performance - TCF bleaching, FSC certification, good resource utilisation, small carbon footprint. It is very positive that paper customers now get access to an easy-to-use tool to guide them in their choice of an environmental-friendly paper, says Björn Lyngfelt, vice president communications SCA Forest Products, Sweden.

Check Your Paper includes all the main pulp and paper categories, including coated and uncoated papers, newsprint, tissue, packaging and board papers, speciality papers and several types of pulp.

Globally, paper consumption is on the rise, with an expected increase from the current rate of 400 million tons annually to 450-500 million tons by 2020.1 Without a higher standard of environmental performance across the industry, this level of consumption will leave an unacceptably large environmental impact on the planet. Poor practices such as reckless logging and indiscriminate expansion of pulpwood plantations damage fragile ecosystems and escalate social conflict. The pulp and paper industry's mills and factories are large users of energy and emitters of greenhouse gases, and many are also significant sources of water pollution and landfill waste.

Check Your Paper provides a single percentage score for a product that indicates the quality of its production in terms of reduced environmental impact. In addition, the star-rating breaks this down into impact mitigation performance specific to forests, climate change and aquatic ecosystems.

In order to earn the maximum five stars in WWF's Check Your Paper, the paper product shall have:

positive impacts on forests, and contain high proportions of post-consumer recycled fibre and/or virgin fibre originating from credibly certified, well managed forests.
reduced contributions to climate change through use of recycled fibre, responsible forest management and minimising CO2 emissions from fossil fuels in the manufacturing process, and, indirectly, emissions of CO2 and methane from degrading waste in landfills.
close to zero water pollution through reduction of organic water pollution and reduced water pollution from bleaching, through promotion of unbleached or totally chlorine-free bleached products.

For further information:
Anna Koivisto, Forest Officer, Pulp and Paper Programme, WWF International, tel.: +358 44 2944570(mobile) Anna.Koivisto@wwf.fi

(1) Forest industry consultancy company Pöyry's "medium" scenario for the world paper and paperboard demand in 2020 is 472 million tons This is sensitive to economic development/growth. Accordingly, there are "high" and "low" scenarios, resulting in some +/-25 million tons range around the "medium" range.

About WWF
WWF is one of the world's largest and most respected independent conservation organizations, with more than 5 million supporters and a global network active in over 100 countries. WWF's mission is to stop the degradation of the earth's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world's biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.

Report: Green Business Network

2011-01-08

The Green Business Network aims to provide tools and support to businesses willing to work towards a sustainable future for the Heart of Borneo. By working together we can secure the natural resources on which businesses rely and develop an international reputation for the Heart of Borneo as a place to do green and sustainable business.

We aim to work with:

Businesses operating, financing or sourcing materials in the HoB: The GBN is dedicated to communicating the information that your business needs to know; how will the government define and enforce 'sustainable land use' in your sector? How can you access carbon financing by improving sustainable management in your concession? What are others in your sector doing on sustainability?

We also aim to develop and communicate a range of solutions to sustainable and profitable business development in the HoB. This report accompanies the launch of Heart of Borneo Green Business Network and is aimed in particular at three key business sectors in the HoB: forestry, palm oil and mining.
Other organisations committed to supporting forests, climate and communities: The GBN is being initiatied by WWF but it is set up to welcome any and all organisations that can support sustainable business in the HoB.

You might be a business interested to share financial resources and skills, a consultancy looking to offer sustainability advice, a donor looking to support innovative private sector conservation mechanisms or an NGO also working on sustainable business solutions in the HoB.

This report and the related strategy for the GBN are the product of extensive interviews and surveys involving over 80 companies currently operating in and around the HoB focus area.

Visit wwf.panda.org/borneo/greenbusinessnetwork for more details on how your business can benefit from the GBN or email: borneo.gbn@wwf.panda.org to add your details to our distribution list.

Exporting in a Shifting Legal Landscape

2010-06-18

GFTN and TRAFFIC's guide to legal exports, Exporting in a Shifting Legal Landscape, is aimed at companies that export, or intend to export, forest products to the US market. It is designed to allow companies to assess their own performance and offers advice on how they can meet the needs of their customers in the US—who are required to know that the forest products they import have been legally harvested and traded.

The guide is also of benefit to forest service, customs officers and other governmental officials who serve as enforcement officers in the national forest law and related legislation that apply to all stages of the supply chain from harvest to export and import.

The guide also makes includes a section on the European Union Timber Regulation, which will go into effect on 3 March, 2013. Many of the ideas suggested within this manual will also be of relevance in the EU.

WWF/GFTN and TRAFFIC gratefully acknowledge the support of IKEA, the US Agency for International Development Regional Development Mission for Asia (USAID RDMA) through the Responsible Asia Forest Trade (RAFT) programme and the European Union.

RESPONSIBLE ASIA FORESTRY AND TRADE (RAFT) PROGRAMME
This publication is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) support for the Responsible Asia Forestry and Trade (RAFT) programme. The contents are the responsibility of WWF and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, or the United States government or the European Commission.

The Asia Pacific region, home to half the planet's population, is the largest producer and processor of tropical timber in the world. The region faces growing international demand for timber and non-timber forest products. This demand is projected to increase in the coming years putting greater pressure on natural forests exacerbating the negative social and environmental impacts. The RAFT programme is a coalition of dedicated partners that seeks to present a comprehensive response to persistent deforestation and forest degradation in the region.

More information is available at www.responsibleasia.org

GFTN's Guide to Legal and Responsible Sourcing

2010-06-17

Since the Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN) first published its Guide to Responsible Purchasing of Forest Products over five years ago, followed by the closely associated Keep It Legal manual there have been numerous developments in both international policy and trade.

Legislative processes in the US and Europe, such as the amended US Lacey Act and the European Union's Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan, as well as developments within certification and chain of custody have necessitated the enhancement of the advice available regarding legality.

The GFTN's interactive Guide to Legal and Responsible Sourcing combines the wisdom previously contained in GFTN's resources on legality and responsible procurement into a single, more in-depth resource to help companies navigate the complex and fast-changing regulatory and legislative landscape governing trade in timber and timber products. Only a click away, this online resource is a vital and indispensable tool to anyone who purchases forest products, including processors, importers, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers. Features of this interactive tool include:

Comprehensive and integrated advice from GFTN's Guide to Responsible Purchasing of Forest Products and Keep It Legal manual
Never before published set of national indicators and verifiersfor legality—GFTN's Common Legality Framework—which is comprised of several broad principles of legality, each supported by individual criteria and indicators linking the principle to existing legislation
New guidance on addressing legality in major timber producing and exporting countries—with a particular focus on developing countries with high biodiversity forests where illegal logging and trade are known to be a significant concern
Ability to print and bookmark specific sections of interest and search a number of key terms, enabling the user to both easily access the overall concepts and drill deeper on specific issues
Instant access other online resources, offering a greater depth to the understanding of aspects of responsible purchasing of forest products

Human health linked directly to forest health

2010-03-19

Gland, Switzerland – Environmental degradation is causing serious detrimental health impacts for humans, but protecting natural habitats can reverse this and supply positive health benefits, according to a new WWF report.

"Our research confirms what we know instinctively: Human health is inextricably linked to the health of the planet," says Chris Elliot, WWF's Executive Director of Conservation.

Vital Sites: The Contribution of Protected Areas to Human Health notes that the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates between 23 and 25 per cent of the global disease burden could be avoided by improved management of environmental conditions.

The report, released in advance of World Forestry Day on March 21, singles out deforestation for its key impacts on human health.

"Deforestation is a double blow to human health," says Elliot. "It increases the spread of certain diseases while destroying plants and animals that may hold the key to treating illnesses that plague millions of people."

Protecting natural landscapes can contribute positively to human health through protecting future medicinal resources, reducing the impacts of pollution, toxins and weather extremes and providing recreational places that support physical and mental well-being.

World Forestry Day takes on special significance this year, as 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity. "Vital Sites" makes a strong case for protecting biodiversity.

In the forests of Borneo alone in the past decade WWF reports discoveries of trees and shrubs that may be used to treat cancer, HIV and malaria. In all, 422 new plant species have been discovered in Borneo in the last 25 years, but deforestation puts them and others waiting to be discovered at risk.

"When WWF stresses the importance of biodiversity, it's not just because we enjoy a variety of trees or frogs in a forest. It's because the science tells us that those trees and frogs are vital to the forest's health, and the forest's health is vital to our health," says Elliot.

The report stresses that while people are good at cultivating plants whose value is known, we have a poor track record at conserving those seen as having little use for humans. The problem is, habitat destruction is eliminating potentially valuable species before they can even be discovered, let alone tested.

This short-sighted use of forest resources has major economic implications as well; by the year 2000, plant-based pharmaceuticals were estimated to earn more than $30 billion per year.

"Vital Sites" should be a wake-up call, not just for people concerned with protecting natural resources and biodiversity, but for anyone interested in protecting and promoting human health.

"Most people think of protected areas like national parks and nature reserves as tools for wildlife conservation, but by protecting whole habitats and ecosystems the world's protected areas offer us some very practical social benefits as well," writes Dr. Kathy MacKinnon, lead biodiversity specialist for the World Bank, in the report's foreword.

For further information:

Vital Sites: The Contribution of Protected Areas to Human Health is available from
http://assets.panda.org/downloads/vital_sites.pdf

Liza Higgins-Zogib, Manager, People and Conservation, WWF International
Email: lhiggins-zogib@wwfint.org, Tel: +41 22 364 9009, Mobile: +41 76 3777283

About WWF
WWF is one of the world's largest and most respected independent conservation organizations, with almost 5 million supporters and a global network active in over 100 countries. WWF's mission is to stop the degradation of the earth's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world's biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.

www.panda.org/media for latest news and media resources

Natural Solutions: protected areas helping people cope with climate change

2009-12-08

Climate change poses an unprecedented level of threat to life on the planet. The facts are well known. Atmospheric greenhouse gases are creating warmer temperatures, ice melt, sea-level rise and an unpredictable climate, with a range of extremely serious and hard-to-predict consequences.

But serious as the situation has now become, much can still be done to reduce the problems created by climate change. "Natural Solutions" focuses on the role that protected areas can play in mitigating and adapting to climate change; a set of options that so far has been under-represented in global response strategies. In the rush for "new" solutions to climate change, we are in danger of neglecting a proven alternative.

Protected areas are an essential part of the global response to climate change. They are helping address the cause of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. They are helping society cope with climate change impacts by maintaining essential services upon which people depend. Without them, the challenges would be even greater, and their strengthening will yield one of the most powerful natural solutions to the climate crisis.

Some of the facts:

Fifteen percent of the world's terrestrial carbon stock - 312 gigatonnes - are stored in protected areas around the world.
In Canada, over 4,000 million tons of carbon dioxide is sequestered in 39 national parks, estimated to be worth $39-87 billion in carbon credits.
In the Brazilian Amazon, protected lands are expected to prevent 670,000 km² of deforestation by 2050, representing 8 billion tons of avoided carbon emissions.

Protected areas also serve as natural buffers against climate impacts and other disasters, providing space for floodwaters to disperse, stabilizing soil against landslides and blocking storm surges. It has been estimated that coastal wetlands in the United States provide $23.2 billion a year in protection against flooding from hurricanes.

And protected areas can keep natural resources healthy and productive so they can withstand the impacts of climate change and continue to provide the food, clean water, shelter and income communities rely upon for survival. Thirty three of the world's 100 largest cities derive their drinking water from catchments within forest protected areas.

Plan de Manejo de la Chunga

2009-11-11

El presente documento "Plan General de Manejo de la Chunga" fue elaborado con el objetivo de fomentar el uso y aprovechamiento ordenado de esta especie no maderable propio de los bosques del Darién.

Investment Screening Guidelines for Financial Investors

2009-10-23

This innovative resource will identify key environmental and social principles and criteria that need to be considered in all investment decisions pertaining to the forest sector, such as timber, pulp and paper, and other sectors whose activities impact forests, including palm oil cultivation and mining.

Please sign up here to receive more information about the tool and a notification when it is released.

New Generations Plantations Project - Synthesis Report 2007 - 2009

2009-10-18

WWF Guide to Conservation Finance

2009-10-06

The Guide to Conservation Finance provides an overview of conservation financing mechanisms that have been implemented throughout the world. The guide informs field practitioners about which of the available financing mechanisms they could apply to achieve their conservation aims. The various mechanisms are illustrated with short case studies that demonstrate both successes and challenges. In addition, the guide provides a list of resources and Web links for further exploration of the conservation finance field.

Protected Areas Benefits Assessment Tool

2009-09-18

The Protected Areas Benefits Assessment Tool (PA-BAT) is designed to fill an important gap in the toolbox of protected area agencies and conservation institutions, by providing a methodology to collate and build information about the overall benefits from protected areas.

As pressures on protected areas continue to develop over time, and demand for land and water, and for management resources, is increasingly stretched, park managers need to have arguments for protection in place and backed by a solid body of data collected over time.

This need is recognized explicitly in the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas, for example in paragraph 3.1.2: "Conduct national-level assessments of the contributions of protected areas, considering as appropriate environmental services, to the countrys economy and culture, and to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals at the national level; and integrate the use of economic valuation and natural resource accounting tools into national planning processes in order to identify the hidden and non-hidden economic benefits provided by protected areas and who appropriates these benefits. "

The PA-BAT aims to help collate information on the full range of current and potential benefits of individual protected areas. It is a contributory methodology for the overall Arguments for Protection series, but is also hopefully a stand-alone tool that will be of wider use to the protected areas community.

Although developed primarily for use in protected areas, the tool could have wider application, for example in assessing wider benefits of forest management units, agricultural landscapes or areas set aside for recreation.

The main audience for this report is protected area managers and authorities, but it should also be useful for anyone interested in finding out about the range of benefits that protected areas provide.

New guide for financial institutions: The Palm Oil Financing Handbook

2008-12-20

How can banks and investors reduce their risks in the palm oil sector?
How can financial institutions encourage sustainable palm oil production?
These two questions are the starting point for The Palm Oil Financing Handbook, which aims to help financial institutions create or strengthen their own responsible palm oil finance and investment policies. The handbook offers step-by-step advice on everything from defining the scope of such a policy, to developing appropriate screening criteria and helping client or investee companies comply with the policy. Read more

Download The Palm Oil Financing Handbook here!

Promoting responsible forest trade of Bolivian Lesser-Known Timber Species (LKTS)

2008-11-04

GOOD WOOD AND FOREST CONSERVATION
Many will find it strange that WWF, the global conservation organization, would promote timber and logging -- particularly in tropical forests. But the fact is that WWF does support forest industries in all parts of the world provided that they practice socially and environmentally responsible forest management. While WWF continues work to protect the most ecologically valuable forests in reserves, we see responsible forestry as a key component of sustainable development that can and should go hand in hand with forest conservation.

Responsible forestry and forest certification cannot succeed in the tropics without developing appropriate uses and markets for lesser-known timber species (LKTS). Consumers are accustomed to purchasing a very limited range of timber species, and are generally unaware that thousands of useful wood species exist. Using a broader range of species conforms demand to what natural forests can produce sustainably and can reduce the chances that well-known species will be overexploited.

Palm oil, soy and tropical forests: a strategy for life

2008-10-09

Between 2000 and 2006, the area harvested for soy and palm oilglobally increased by almost 22 million hectares—an area twice thesize of Cuba. Today this expansion continues unabated, and in manyplaces is occurring at the expense of natural rainforests and thepeople who depend on them to survive.

Why is this happening? A massive demand for soy and palm oil, whichare used in a wide range of everyday products including animal feed,margarine, ice cream, cosmetics, detergents and biofuels, is drivingthese trends. Today, agricultural expansion is actually a much moreserious threat to forests than timber trade.

There are solutions to deal with the environmental problems caused bythese crops. Companies, investors, governments and consumers shouldencourage soy and oil palm cultivation that protects the environmentand people's livelihoods.

Download new WWF brochure to learn more.

WWF Discussion Paper: Policy Approaches and Positive Incentives for REDD

2008-09-11

This discussion paper is intended to provide an overview to potential policy approaches and positive
incentives for REDD in the post-2012 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In particular, the paper discusses the potential implications or key elements for consideration when determining positive incentives for REDD. This paper is not a statement of WWF's position and should not be quoted as such, instead it is provided with a view to informing the discussions on this subject.

The paper ends with a summary and key elements for further discussion. WWF welcomes comments on these areas and any other points raised in the discussion paper.

For more information please contact:
Emily Brickell, Climate & Forests Officer at EBrickell@wwf.org.uk
Christine Pendzich, Forest-carbon Network Initiative Lead at Christine.Pendzich@wwfus.org

Tracking progress in protected area management

2008-06-13

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in early 2004 produced a Programme of Work on Protected Areas, in which Parties to the convention are called to assess at least 30 per cent of their parks AND their networks of protected areas, by 2010.

To assist parties in this important endeavour, WWF can offer two management effectiveness tools: The Tracking Tool and WWF's RAPPAM methodology.

The Tracking Tool aims to be:

Capable of providing a harmonised reporting system for protected area assessment;

Suitable for replication;

Able to supply consistent data to allow tracking of progress over time;

Relatively quick and easy to complete by protected area staff, so as not to be reliant on high levels of funding or other resources;

Capable of providing a "score" if required;

Based around a system that provides four alternative text answers to each question, strengthening the scoring system;

Easily understood by non-specialists; and

Nested within existing reporting systems to avoid duplication of effort.

The Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool is aimed to help reporting progress on management effectiveness and should not replace more thorough methods of assessment for the purposes of adaptive management.

The tracking tool has been developed to provide a quick overview of progress in improving the effectiveness of management in individual protected areas, to be filled in by the protected area manager or other relevant site staff. As such it is clear that there are strict limitations on what it can achieve: it should not for example be regarded as an independent assessment, or as the sole basis for adaptive management.

Because of the great differences between expectations, resources and needs around the world, the tracking tool also has strict limitations in terms of allowing comparison between sites: the scoring system, if applied at all, will be most useful for tracking progress over time in one site or a closely related group of sites.

Lastly, the tracking tool is too limited to allow a detailed evaluation of outcomes and is really aimed at providing a quick overview of the management steps identified in the WCPA Framework up to and including outputs. Although we include some questions relating to outcomes, the limitations of these should be noted. Clearly, however good management is, if biodiversity continues to decline, the protected area objectives are not being met.

Therefore the question on condition assessment has disproportionate importance in the overall tracking tool.