Certification and Development of Forest Enterprises in the Peruvian Amazon: A Civil Society – Public – Private Alliance

The project's purpose is to demonstrate that sound conservation and responsible management of forests can contribute to sustainable economic development, directly benefiting local peoples and enterprises. The project works with private forest enterprises, communities, and the government to provide technical assistance and improve forest management planning and activities through forest and chain of custody certification. The project's staff has assisted a number of companies and indigenous communities in achieving certification for 441,915 hectares and 14 chains of custody certificates in 12 companies for responsible and legal forest trade and management. Technical staff have helped companies solve some administrative requirements (AR's) and provided support to solve certification audit requirements (CAR's) presented in the reports by the certifier bodies. Four companies that aimed to maintain forest management certification also went through their annual evaluations and maintained their certificates during the past trimester. The project has made significant progress in achieving its objectives. In terms of forest certification, 360,000 hectares in selected forest concessions and indigenous communities have achieved forest certification. Five companies maintain the FSC certificate, covering 426,272 hectares. Technical support has been provided to solve CAR's from annual evaluations to Maderacre, A&A SAC, Maderyja, and AESA. In terms of chain of custody certification, 12 forest enterprises and timber products manufacturers have been awarded certification, and 10 companies maintain their chain of custody certification. The project has also made progress in terms of markets and added value for certified products. Three companies evaluated in the previous year have shown an increase in harvest volume and range of harvested species. Two new baseline studies have been carried out in Green Gold Forestry and AESA, and one baseline study on productivity has been conducted in IC Belgica. New investments have been made in new technologies, infrastructure, and staff training by private companies. The project aims to sell 40,000 m3 of certified wood on national and international markets by the end of the project, equivalent to $12 million dollars. The project's governance and institutional strengthening objective has also been addressed. The Regional Government of Madre de Dios has started the process for the transference of functions and competencies from the Central Government to assume full responsibility of the administration and regulation of the resources in the region. WWF Peru has strongly supported this process by providing necessary tools and hiring specialists to streamline the process. The project's budget for the reporting period is $394,329, with a total budget of $479,965. The project's progress is 26% complete, with a balance of $124,723 remaining. The project's staff has provided technical assistance to forest concessions, indigenous communities, and local forest industries to achieve forest management certification and chain of custody certification. The project has also worked with the government to promote sustainable forest management and certification.