Certified sustainable forestry has proven to conserve the rainforest more effectively than strict protection in Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve, according to a new study by the Rainforest Alliance.

While deforestation by loggers and farmers continues to plague the reserve, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified forests in the reserve suffer dramatically less destruction and fire damage than even lands designated for strict protection.

According to Rainforest Alliance forester Gustavo Pinelo this is because, "We achieve best results in conservation when we involve communities in protecting their own lands. They must receive direct benefits from managing their own natural and cultural resources."

The 4.9 million-acre (2 million-hectare) reserve in northern Petén is divided into a core protected area, a multiple-use zone and a buffer zone. In partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Rainforest Alliance has worked in the multiple-use zone for the last 11 years to train foresters, certify land, support community enterprises and build links between FSC-certified businesses and markets, helping communities conserve their forests and increase their profits.

Using data from the Wildlife Conservation Society, satellite images, the National Protected Area Council (CONAP) and its own database, the Rainforest Alliance found that between 1990 and 2005 deforestation in the entire reserve was 20 times higher than that of FSC-certified concessions and at current rates, 38 percent of the forest that existed in 1986 will be lost by 2050.

Projected area under forest cover and percentage (of 1986 forest cover) in 2025 and 2050 assuming average annual deforestation rates between 2002-2005 by management class in MBR.

	1986	Deforest	2005		2025		2050
Management Class	Ha	rate (%)	Ha	% forest remaining	Ha	% forest remaining	Ha	% forest remaining
Core Protected Area	795,326	0.9%	741,227	93%	612,814	77%	480,105	60%
FSC Certified Concession	484,798	0.1%	482,203	99%	476,421	98%	469,280	97%
Multiple Use Zone	304,286	0.9%	281,324	92%	229,505	75%	176,663	58%
Buffer Zone	363,747	2.5%	227,128	62%	114,419	31%	43,445	12%
MBR	1,948,157	1.0%	1,731,883	89%	1,433,159	74%	1,169,494	60%

Eleven forestry cooperatives in the Mosquitia rainforest of Honduras are securing their futures in sustainable forest management. The Rainforest Alliance, the State Forestry Administration (AFE-COHDEFOR) and the Foundation for the Promotion and Development of Exports (FIDE) have officially agreed on a forestry development strategy for the cooperatives that manage 247,000 acres (100,000 hectares) of broadleaf forest the Río Plátano Biosphere.

With the cooperation of the three signatories, the cooperatives will build three processing centers at a cost of $250,000, where they expect to process nearly 1.3 million board feet (nearly 3,200 cubic meters) of mahogany and four other lesser known species of wood and wood products over the next 10 years. As a key part of the plan, the centers and the forest are slated for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification.

Medardo Caballero, a Rainforest Alliance forestry professional in Honduras, says, "As they reach their goals, the cooperatives will generate attractive jobs and reinvest their incomes, creating true incentives to sustainably manage their forests."

For the last eight years, small farm owners in the Mexican states Chiapas and Oaxaca have been planting trees to shade their coffee, reforesting fallow lands and planting "living fences" of trees to demarcate their farms' borders. The land now sequesters far more carbon than before and now, through Plan Vivo, a program of the non-profit BioClimate Research and Development, the owners can sell that carbon as credits to companies seeking to offset their carbon emissions.

Plan Vivo works in rural communities around the world awarding certificates that quantify carbon stored on the land. The Mexican branch, called Scolel Te, includes more than 2,000 farm owners. As part of our new climate change program, the Rainforest Alliance and Plan Vivo developed standards for Scolel Te's self-monitoring system. Last year our auditors independently verified that Scolel Te has the tools and knowledge to monitor its lands and uphold its own standards for planting and stewardship.

Jeff Hayward, Rainforest Alliance verification services manager, says, "This is a small but important incentive to farmers to plant trees, tend their agro-forestry plots and restore the overgrazed hillsides. It stimulates reforestation, which may not have taken place and supports the rural poor through a viable offset of carbon emissions."

The Mexican cooperative Ambio coordinates Plan Vivo in Mexico, working directly with the farmers. Elsa Esquivel of Ambio says, "Many farmers participating in Scolel Te have changed how they think about natural resources management and are visualizing the long-term health and use of their forests as something practical."

The Rainforest Alliance certified a Mexican paper company for the first time in December. Grupo Pochteca earned a multi-site Chain of Custody certification for its central office and eight satellite stores throughout Mexico.

Manager at Pochteca Bruno Belsasso lists three main areas in which changes were made to comply with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards: upgrading quality procedures, improving the warehouses and training employees and raising awareness of the importance of applying FSC standards to their work.

"Grupo Pochteca just acquired certification one month ago, but we're sure it will give us a competitive edge since sustainable businesses are a trend that is generating more interest every day in Mexican society and markets," Belsasso says.

Following their visit to the Guatemala rainforest in July, Julianne Schrader and Maria Ghiso of the Rainforest Alliance's environmental education program are returning to the jungle this month to provide teacher training workshops.

In cooperation with the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Washington, D.C.-based education organization Project Learning Tree and the Guatemalan government, the Rainforest Alliance has agreed to offer teachers in the Petén the tools and techniques necessary to integrate environmental education into their classrooms.

"By reaching out to the teachers and children of the forestry communities we all are helping to ensure that the decision-makers of tomorrow will continue their parents' traditions of sustainably managing the precious Maya Biosphere Reserve," Schrader says.

Send free Rainforest Alliance eCards!

The Sustainable Forestry Update is a quarterly publication from the Rainforest Alliance.

Sign up to receive the Sustainable Forestry Update by email!

To prevent mailbox filters from blocking issues of the Sustainable Forestry Update, add forestry-update@ra.org to your address book.

Review our privacy policy.

This newsletter was produced with the support of the United States Agency for International Development.

The mission of the Rainforest Alliance is to protect ecosystems and the people and wildlife that depend on them by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior. Companies, cooperatives and landowners that participate in our programs meet rigorous standards that conserve biodiversity and provide sustainable livelihoods.

Rainforest Alliance
665 Broadway, Suite 500, New York, NY 10012
Telephone: (888) MY-EARTH - Fax: (212) 677-2187
info@ra.org

© 2008 Rainforest Alliance