Financing sustainable forest management: a growing challenge.

With increasing globalization of markets, rising environmental awareness, and attention from international conventions and agreements, the vast majority of countries are looking into managing their forests more sustainably. The main limitation appears to be lack of funding for improving forest management. Traditional sources include the government, targeted investments from the private sector, international donor support, and contributions in kind from rural communities. But these are grossly inadequate, and additional finances are required. Alternative financing arrangements are being developed and tested in many countries. They include a vast array of schemes such as conservation concessions, debt-for nature-swaps, payments for environmental services, including “green funds” (payments for carbon offsets), and compensatory payments, to cite a few. However, the roles, priorities, and requirements of the various funding entities remain unclear to the vast majority of individuals involved in forest management activities. This introduction touches on the array of schemes being tested. The rest of the papers in this proceeding highlight specific schemes which are gathering interest for financing sustainable forest management.