Join us on Thursday, July 28 (note the August BATFN is being held in late July!) from 6-8:30 pm for a Bay Area Tropical Forest Network (BATFN) event held at the Rainforest Action Network’s office in San Francisco.
Peter Riggs of Pivot Point will be leading a discussion on the timber sector in tropical developing countries. Come ready to share your experiences.
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Is it possible to move timber production beyond its often violent and destructive origins? What business models are necessary to move tropical timber markets from illegality to legality, from monocultures to mixed stands, and to combat continuous deforestation at the forest frontier? What can we learn from attempts to ‘de-commodify’ other forest products that serve both local and distant buyers – such as cacao, coffee, or cardamom— where fair-trade certification and a livelihoods back-story can be built into product appeal? Can smallholders benefit from any of this? How does any of it get financed?
Join us for a fun, interactive evening unpacking these forest-sector transition questions. [Guest presenter is …] After a quick summary of the science and rights-based debates on tropical logging, we’ll take stock of current strands in the effort to improve the development performance of tropical timber: anti-corruption, tenure security, sustainable livelihoods, REDD+ payments, certification, chain-of-custody innovations, ‘landscape approaches’.
Building on that foundation we’ll present a multi-country effort, ‘Fair Wood’. Fair Wood’s entrepreneur-support model is galvanizing Scandinavia’s progressive business community with new ideas about wood-product sourcing and around new roles for companies and smallholders in timber value chains.
We’ll troubleshoot the Fair Wood model, draw out key assumptions, and ask what components are attractive (or not) in the American market – sketching an ‘ecosystem of actions’ around preventing tropical deforestation, while delving more deeply into one European effort that takes its impetus from a progressive business community.
Admission is free and open to all, with refreshments (including wine and beer) courtesy of the Bay Area Tropical Forest Network and Pivot Point. Thank you to RAN for generously hosting the event at their office.
WHEN: Thursday, July 28, 6-8:30 pm
WHERE: 425 Bush Street, Ste 300, San Francisco, CA 94108 USA