Rainforest Alliance Finds Sustainably Certified Forests Have Fewer Wildfires

Rainforest Alliance Finds Sustainably Certified Forests Have Fewer Wildfires

We already knew that certifying forestry projects under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification standards was a good idea. Now a new study by the Rainforest Alliance in Guatemala tells us that forest concessions managed in compliance with FSC certification standards have seen fewer wildfires and less deforestation compared with protected and other areas within the Maya Biosphere Reserve, an area of tropical forest in Guatemala’s northern Petén region. Bonus! According to the Alliance, in 2007, fires affected 0.1 percent of FSC-certified forest concessions in the reserve, down from 6.5 percent in 1998. During the same period, fires affected between 7 and 20 percent of the rest of the reserve. In addition, the average annual deforestation rate in FSC-certified forest concessions between 2002 and 2007 was 20 times lower than the deforestation rate within the protected areas where harvesting of wood and non-timber forest products is prohibited.