For millions of poor people, forests provide a safety net, supplying them with food, fuel, building material and medicines. Especially in times of food shortage or between harvests, the forest is a vital source of nutrients. Despite the immense latent resources of the forests, however, their inhabitants generally remain poor and the common prejudices of underdevelopment and impoverishment remain bitter reality.

Tropical rainforests have the highest biodiversity in the world. Their plants and soils also absorb harmful carbon dioxide, produce oxygen and store water. This makes forests – particularly large rainforest regions with their considerable biomass – crucial for global climate stability.

The profit margin for tropical wood is wide. However, production methods aimed at one-off gains and the prevailing property regulations generally prevent the timber industry from acting as a motor for regional growth. Another reason is the criminal methods sometimes applied in the industry. Forced evictions and expropriations of land are common along with corruption and theft. The World Bank estimates that illegal felling costs timber-producing countries an annual 10 to 15 billion euro in lost revenue.

Forest certification provides the opportunity to manage forests sustainably. In forest certification, independent auditors confirm that the management of a forest meets certain ecological, economic and social standards. This enables the consumer to opt for products with the appropriate labelling. Forest certification raises demand for certified wood, thus rewarding responsible forestry. So it is first and foremost a free-market instrument to create incentives for sustainable forest management.

The process of forest certification is more than just a stamp of quality for wood. It entails: 

• agreement of national standards for sustainable forestry
• application of these standards to evaluate forestry enterprises 
• certification of all the links in the wood supply chain from the forest to the finished product (chain of custody certification)
• identification and marketing of products from certified dealers by means of a quality certificate.

The processs also relies on responsible consumers, who contribute to sustainable forestry by their purchase decisions and on the institutions needed to implement certification.