Consumption of tropical timber important for preserving the rainforest

Preventing the clearing of the rainforest by buying tropical timber? That sounds paradoxical at first. But if you look at the situation of many forestry companies in Latin America and Southeast Asia on the ground, the effect, also known as the “utilization paradox”, becomes clear.

As long as forestry companies can manage the forest in a sustainable, careful way and earn money with it, they are not faced with the question of whether they have to sell forest plots to agricultural companies. If management is not profitable in the long term, the forest is sold and cleared to create farmland.

When consumers and traders buy tropical wood from sustainable and certified forestry, they secure the preservation of the forest. The prerequisite is sustainable forestry according to the principles of sustainability.