China

Rainforest Alliance

(www.rainforestalliance.org)

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.

At the Rainforest Alliance, we believe that the key to ensuring long and healthy lives for people, for wildlife and for the planet is by establishing sustainable ways of working the land. In over 50 countries around the world, we are collaborating with farmers, workers, business leaders, NGO's, governments, scientists and local communities to develop and implement standards that are socially and environmentally responsible, as well as economically viable.

By creatively and systematically helping to overhaul the way that crops and timber are produced and the way tourism is managed, the Rainforest Alliance, its partners and the consumers they serve are ensuring that the resources we depend on today will be here far into the future.

China’s manufacturing sector consumes nearly one out of every two tropical trees that are harvested in the world. Yet the country has been forced to prohibit logging in its own state forests in order to help control flooding in downstream agricultural valleys. In the seven years since the logging ban enacted by the government went into effect, China has tripled the amount of wood and pulp imported from Southeast Asia and Siberia, increasing pressure on biologically rich habitats in those regions where illegal logging is already endangering vast forest areas.

In collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund, the Chinese Academy of Forestry and others, the Rainforest Alliance is promoting Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) forest management certification in China by educating foresters and stakeholders from a network of partner organizations and target audiences on the principles of FSC certification, then provide key experts with the training, tools and materials to reproduce our workshops, to create an exponential level of sustainable forestry awareness.