Low impact and verified legal harvesting of Brazilian native forests can strengthen the tropical timber market and through this provide opportunities for landowners and forest communities, ITTO reported.
The Brazilian Coalition for Climate, Forestry and Agriculture has proposed that the area of forest under SFM in Brazil should be expanded tenfold from the current level to reach 30 million hectares (around 7% of the Amazon forest) by 2030.
The main challenge to convert this proposal into reality is the elimination of illegal activities in the supply chain.
The Brazilian Coalition has proposed measures such improved transparency in the forest management plan approval process and points out that strengthening the tropical forest economy depends on traceability across harvesting, transport and processing as consumers are increasingly requiring evidence of the origin of wood products.
The Coalition has said traceability should be considered as a condition for public procurement.
