Where We Work

Asia and Oceania

Where we work: Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Nepal, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Vietnam

Background

Most of the nations of Asia and Oceania -- where about one-quarter of the world’s tropical forests and the members of half of its biological species are found -- are developing countries, where natural resources have been exploited with little concern for the effect on the environment.

In particular, illegal logging is decimating forests in Southeast Asia, Papua New Guinea and Fiji, with devastating effects on wildlife and on indigenous and local communities who rely on the forests for food, building materials and medicines. For example, Indonesia has lost almost three-quarters of its natural forests -- 40 percent of which have been totally degraded due to destructive and/or illegal logging and conversion to other uses. Much of the pressure on these forests comes from China, which has banned logging in its own state forests in order to control soil erosion and flooding resulting from deforestation, and Japan, where modernization and high wages have driven up the cost of domestic logging. Both countries import large amounts of wood from Southeast Asia, much of it harvested illegally. And while both are taking steps to "clean up" their supply chains, much more needs to be done.

Another disturbing trend is the conversion of natural forests in much of Oceania to tree plantations harvesting a few select species (such as palm trees, whose oil is in demand as a biofuel). Plantations often have a destructive effect on biodiversity -- they tend to use heavy amounts of pesticides and do not take steps to protect local plant or wildlife species.

Our Work

The Rainforest Alliance is working with foresters and wood products companies in Asia and Oceania to establish viable alternatives to destructive forestry practices.

In China, we are training foresters, businesspeople and other stakeholders to take steps to protect wildlife habitat, soils and waterways and ensure decent conditions for workers -- which will help their operations earn certification to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards.

To ensure that the manufacture of forest-sourced products meets FSC standards, the Rainforest Alliance is expanding its Chain-of-Custody (CoC) certification audits throughout Asia and Oceania. CoC certification -- which tracks wood and fiber from their original point of harvest through the manufacturing process -- has sharply increased in Japan, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Australia in response to the growing demand for certified products in Europe and the United States.

We are also providing wood verification services, which enable importers to trace furniture and other forest-based products to their sources, for companies importing Asian wood to Europe, where -- in order to combat the illegal timber trade -- the European Union is requiring importers to provide evidence of legal harvesting.

In Laos, two community-based forestry operations which cover more than 120,000 acres (50,000 hectares) and practice "participatory sustainable forest management" -- villagers partner with government forestry offices and share the profits from timber sales -- have become the first natural forests in Indochina to achieve FSC/Rainforest Alliance certification.

And because deforestation contributes to climate change through the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the Rainforest Alliance is auditing "conservation carbon" projects, where foresters sell credits for carbon sequestered by their forests, earning enough profit to afford to harvest wood sustainably. Our first audit in Indonesia involved a 1.8 million-acre (740,000-hectare) forest in the territory of Aceh.

We are also tapping into Asian consumers’ growing demand for sustainably grown agricultural products. Leading Japan- and Australia-based companies now buy coffee from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms; Japan consumes almost two million certified bananas a year. And we are working to promote sustainable farming practices on tea, coffee, cocoa and fruit farms in the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam and India.