Press Room

Increasing Demand for Legal Wood With a RIL Solution

February 25, 2009

Recent changes to the Lacey Act now provide for criminal penalties for any US company that knowingly imports illegally harvested wood. TFF has a program in place to deal with the risk by providing a standard for legality and help with independent auditing to confirm to customers and the authorities that wood products are legal for sale in the US.

Tropical Forest Foundation Announces 2010 Global Impact

Washington, DC, November 16, 2010 – The Tropical Forest Foundation (TFF) announces it’s 2010 global impact as the organization’s 2009-2010 reporting year comes to a close, including expansion into millions of new hectares of tropical forestland and over 1,000 trained Sustainable Forestry Management (SFM) professionals across Asia Pacific, Africa and South America.

These results are made up of a series of positive impacts made by TFF’s SFM training programs in tropical regions around the globe. The organization recently completed a two-year project in Gabon, funded by the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO). This project represents the industry’s first implementation of Reduced Impact Logging (RIL) in Africa.

A study implemented in conjunction with TFF’s Gabon training program indicates that, compared to conventional...Click the headline to read more.

Tropical Forest Foundation Studies Sustainable Forestry Center for Peru

Washington, DC, September 20, 2010 – As Peru struggles to meet the forestry requirements of its Trade Promotion Agreement with the United States, the Tropical Forest Foundation (TFF) has been invited to study the feasibility of establishing a sustainable forestry management (SFM) training center there.  TFF, based near Washington, DC, operates similar centers in South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk issued a statement in August pressing the Peruvian government to increase its commitment to implementing the requirements of an 18-point forestry addendum to the Trade Promotion Agreement. The implementation deadline was August 1, 2010.

Lima-based Bozovich Group, the largest timber products company in Peru, contacted TFF earlier this year asking for help to speed up the industry’s adoption of improved forestry practices. “Now that the scope and scale of Peru’s new responsibilities under the Trade Promotion Agreement are established, we believe that Peru’s forest industry is sorely in need of TFF’s expertise,” Giannina Vick, general manager of Bozovich Timber Products, the group’s U.S. operation, said in a letter to TFF. “(We) feel that Bozovich Group, as Peru’s largest lumbering...Click the headline to read more.

TFF Surpasses 4,000 Trainees in Sustainable Forestry

September 9, 2009

TFF announced today that it expects to graduate its 4,000th trainee in sustainable forestry practices since the inception of the organization in 1991. “Our real strength has always been our ability to work with the wood products industry in tropical countries to assist them on the ground with training and our model forest system” said TFF President, Keister Evans.

Lacey Act Requires Legal Sourcing To Do Business in the U.S.

September 9, 2009

As a result of recent changes to the Lacey Act in the United States, most wood products imported into the United States now require a certificate of legal origin from the source country. The TFF has responded to a growing demand for proof of legality by making its Legal Verified program available to any wood supplier or importer that wishes to use an established, internationally recognized, system for documenting legality using an industry- standard chain-of-custody system.