Sustainable forest management and legal trade of forest products: Pathways towards certification

This manual is for trainers from organizations that provide support to forest sector smallholders, communities, the private sector and national stakeholders in the production of timber and other forest products. It is a detailed, step-by-step instructional course they can deliver on sustainable forest management and the legal trade of forest products in support of national and international certification mechanisms. The manual includes exercises, handouts, case studies and suggested training materials that trainers can use. It lists supplementary resources. The purpose is to help trainers conduct training to a wide range of local and national stakeholders, including:

• Forest-based communities
• People or groups who want to develop forest-based community enterprises
• Local government authorities
• Local and national private-sector actors
• National forest product associations
• National government agencies
• Civil society organizations

The manual can help strengthen the capacities of these groups. It can also improve their organizational performance in sustainable forest management and trade while addressing the impacts of illegal logging.  

This manual and prior training events and capacity development needs assessments were supported financially by the Government of Norway, the UN-REDD Initiative on Sustainable Forest Trade in the Lower Mekong Region within the framework of the UN-REDD Global Technical Assistance, UNJP/GLO/795/UNJ. The initiative is led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in coordination with the United Nations Environment Programme. The partners provided technical assistance in the preparation of the manual. 

The training manual is available for download as a pdf file. Organizations wishing to use the manual in print format can contact RECOFTC at info@recoftc.org.