Responsible forestry reduces pressure on forests and can create sustainable income for marginalized and extremely poor sectors, such as Amazon indigenous communities. In the region, many of WWF's activities are designed to improve forestry practices, and where possible achieve Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification.

Simultaneously, WWF and partners are "educating the market" to generate preference for responsibly produced and certified timber and timber products; and creating market mechanisms to reduce illegal logging. This involves working with state officials, communities and the business sector.

Opportunities exist

In countries such as Bolivia, where the government has expressed commitments to increase the area of certified forests, great opportunities exist to support the sector: These include promoting certification, increasing local capacity to work on issues related to forest management and certification and especially to develop and market certified products.

What WWF does

WWF supports forest companies and communities to improve their forest management practices. Where possible, WWF provides assistance to engage stakeholders into a process of forest certification, through training and other forms of technical assistance. To improve forest management practices WWF

• creates relationships between producers and buyers
• improves national forest governance
• fights illegal logging
• implements forest management tools
• reduces slash and burn activities
• reduces the impacts of agriculture