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Competing demands for food, fuel and profit are driving the loss and degradation of the world’s remaining forests. Governments, the private sector, and citizens are struggling to manage the conflicts between these priorities. The Governance of Forests Initiative (GFI) seeks to bring widely accepted principles of good governance to bear on the challenges of sustaining forests in developing countries. GFI is a collaboration of the World Resources Institute, Imazon (Brazil) and the Instituto Centro de Vida (Brazil).

The GFI indicator framework seeks to:

This publication brings together the views and experiences of practitioners working in forestry and governance in a large number of countries around the world.

It's hard to imagine with all the progress REDD has achieved, that it all started less than 20 years ago with the Rio Summit in '92, when the makings of a global sustainability architecture in the form of a climate treaty began to take shape. But a forestry treaty had yet to happen.

Coated Groundwood Price Increase- We have been projecting a second quarter price reversal in coated grades since early last fall. It has been our contention that a market turnaround could occur without additional capacity withdrawals – if producers would maintain a disciplined approach. In other words, producers should continue producing uncoated grades on coated equipment well into the future, rather than switching back to more profitable coated grades as soon as possible.

A Moscow-based group of investors chose Jartek to deliver a sawmill for a Sawmill №1 that is to be constructed in Kazluk (Komi Republic, Russia). There were several international enterprises competing for this project, resulting in a long and tough bargaining process. For Jartek, the most important reasons in clinching the deal included earlier successful performance in Russia, cost-efficient solutions at the first stage and a lucrative prospect to double the production quite easily in future.

BARCELONA, Mär. 8, 2010 (RISI) - Both the European and North American paper industries are at a crossroads. Declining paper demand appears to be the big predicament but it is really not the only one nor the most important. History tells us that this is a transitory issue that will eventually run its course, at least for most grades. The poor demand underlies the issue that everyone appears to be ignoring which is that the paper industry in the West is clearly uncompetitive and the mitigation brought about by the continuous mill closures will simply not turn things around.

BRUSSELS, Mär. 9, 2010 (RISI) - REACTIONS TO THE emergence of e-readers from within the pulp and paper industry tend to come in one of two flavors: either i) a head-in-the-sand refusal to believe that anyone would want to read a book or newspaper on an electronic device, no matter how fancy, convenient or cheap; or ii) a we're-all-doomed certainty that traditional publishing is about to die and with it much of the demand for publication papers.

Ailing forest economy unites first nations and businesses in B.C.'s northwest to create value from low-quality wood. A federation of first nations and independent loggers is forging a new type of forestry in northwestern B.C. by rebuilding their economy from the bottom up.

The South African paper, pulp and board industry has consistently increased exports of paper and board and maintained imports at similar levels for the past three years, despite facing a number of challenges, says Paper Manufacturers Association of South Africa (Pamsa) executive director Jane Molony. However, she notes that local consumption, which peaked in 2007, dropped off in 2008 and in 2009.

Geneva, 22 February 2010 - PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) have launched the Sustainable Forest Finance Toolkit, which aims to support the finance sector in progressing towards the sustainable financing of industries impacting forests.

The Chilean earthquake and resultant reduction in pulp supply comes at a time when pulp markets are already very tight with Chinese customers on allocation. The immediate impact is likely to be higher pulp prices leading to higher paper prices. NBSK pulp prices are already at US$890/tonne. In addition to the temporary closures in Chile, supply problems have resulted from flooding in the USA South and Indonesia. Canadian pup mills have announced maintenance shuts for April. Pulp producers are in a position to go for one or two price increases.

Several years ago three U.S. companies sank millions of dollars into a forest reserve in southern Brazil to earn credits to cover some of their carbon emissions back in America. How does the scheme work on the ground? Michael Montgomery reports in collaboration with Mark Schapiro.

Mar. 1, 2010 (China Knowledge) - China Forestry Holdings Co Ltd has announced that it will spend RMB 464 million to purchase rights in a forest in Ninglang County, Yunnan Province.

For a period of 30 years starting on Feb. 26, 2010, the Hong Kong-listed firm will have the right to plant trees in a large forest covering an area of 5.33 hectares.

On the site, the company will plant Yunnan pines, balsam firs, dragon spruces and Sikang pines for the production of wood boards and paper pulp.