Forest Trends

Forest Trends is an international non-profit group based in Washington, D.C. It was created in 1999 by leaders of conservation organizations, forest products firms, research groups, multilateral development banks, private investment funds and philanthropic foundations.

Mission
The organization's mission is "to maintain, restore, and enhance forests and connected natural ecosystems, life-sustaining processes, by promoting incentives stemming from a broad range of ecosystem services and products. Specifically, Forest Trends seeks to catalyze the development of integrated carbon, water, and biodiversity incentives that deliver real conservation outcomes and benefits to local communities and other stewards of our natural resources.

Forest Trends analyzes strategic market and policy issues, catalyzes connections between producers, communities and investors, and develops new financial tools to help markets work for conservation and people."

History
In 1996, a small group of leaders from forest industry, donors, and environmental groups began to meet to consider the array of challenges facing forest conservation and began to identify common ground. This group recognized the respective contributions and limits of their own institutions and decided to create a new organization - Forest Trends - to expand this work of bridging traditional divides and promoting market-based approaches to forest conservation.

In 1998, the group agreed on an organizational model for the new organization. Forest Trends would be a small, nimble, and responsive non-profit organization with three principal roles: convening market players to advance market transformations, generating and disseminating critical information to market players, and facilitating deals between different critical links in the value chains of new forestry. The original group of participants was expanded to include additional representatives from industry, finance, and community conservation, and this enlarged group became the original Board of Directors. The Board was expanded in late 1999 to include representation from other major forest areas besides the United States, including Russia, Brazil, Malaysia, and Canada.

This history, this Board, and our focus on market approaches are Forest Trends' unique strengths. The Board is unusual in that it internalizes the wide diversity of opinion and interest active in global forest issues, yet is bound by the common desire to increase the contribution of markets to improved forest conservation and the livelihoods of people. This unique combination of diversity and common ground enables the organization to better understand the issues and trade-offs associated with different perspectives and to help provide leadership for reconciliation. It also establishes a powerful platform from which Forest Trends can survey the horizon for emerging issues and opportunities, so that it can help bring into focus some of the longer-term global dimensions.

Board of Directors
Accessed March 2011:


 * Matt Arnold - PricewaterhouseCoopers, Washington, DC
 * John Begley - Mats View Consulting, Seattle, WA
 * David Brand - New Forests Pty Limited, Sydney, Australia
 * James E. Brumm - Mitsubishi International Corp., New York, NY
 * Richard Burrett - Earth Capital Partners, London, UK
 * Linda Coady - LIU Institute for Global Issues, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
 * John Earhart - Global Environment Fund, Buenos Aires, Argentina
 * Randy Hayes - Rainforest Action Network, San Fransisco, CA
 * Hans Hoogeveen - Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, The Netherlands
 * Colin le Duc - Generation Investment Management LLP, London, UK
 * Michael Jenkins - Forest Trends, Washington, D.C.
 * Olof Johansson - Sveaskog, Stockholm, Sweden
 * Miguel Milano - Instituo LIFE (Lasting Initiative For Earth), Curitiba, Brazil
 * Daniel Nepstad - IPAM, Amazon Environmental Research Institute, Brazil
 * Yusuf Ole Petenya - Shompole Community Trust, Nairobi, Kenya
 * Marta Isabel Ruiz Corzo - Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, Mexico
 * Sergey Tsyplenkov - Greenpeace Russia
 * Bettina von Hagen - Ecotrust, Portland, OR

Contact
Forest Trends 1050 Potomac Street NW Washington, D.C. 20007 Web page: http://www.forest-trends.org

Sourcewatch resources

 * Beto Borges - Director, Communities and Markets Program
 * Certified Forests Products Council
 * Business and Biodiversity Offset Program
 * Kerry ten Kate, Director, Business and Biodiversity Offset Program
 * Katoomba Group
 * Ecosystem Marketplace
 * Sara J. Scherr
 * Forest Carbon Portal
 * REDD
 * Anne Thiel - Communications Associate