Responsible forest management, challenges and strategies for the protection of Latin American forests

• CATIE and the Alliance for Responsible Forest Management brought together experts in responsible forest management to exchange experiences and strategies for forest protection.

May 27, 2022. The importance of responsible forest management and the role of strategic alliances in its promotion was the central theme of the discussion "Responsible Forest Management Experiences in Latin America and the Caribbean", which was organized by CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) and the Alliance for Responsible Forest Management (ARFM).

The activity began with welcoming remarks by Deputy Director General of CATIE, Juan Carlos Méndez; Michael Galante, Secretary General of ARFM; Jair Urriola, Executive Secretary of the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD); and Vilma Lucrecia Rodríguez, Executive Secretary of the Central American Agricultural Council (CAC).

The webinar featured a broad exchange of knowledge, experiences and strategic practices for the protection of forests through different presentations, which addressed community forest management in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in the Petén, Guatemala; effective strategies for the conservation of tropical forests; and sustainable forest management as a means of opportunities for green and inclusive business.

The presentations were given by Mario Rivas, coordinator of Non Timber Products of the Association of Forest Communities of Petén (ACOFOP); Nelson Kroll, MADERACRE regional manager of Madre de Dios, Upper Amazon in Peru; and Vladimir Valera, coordinator of the Secondary and Active Forests Project at CATIE.

The conversation concluded with a panel discussion on the question: Is there such a thing as responsible and/or sustainable forest management, which was moderated by Marlen Camacho, researcher at the Technological Institute of Costa Rica.

The panel was formed by Yesid Aguilar, from the Technological University of Chocó; César Sabogal, former official of CATIE, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR); Guillermo Detlefsen, researcher at CATIE; and Marie Ange Ngo Bieng, forest ecologist at the French Center for International Cooperation in Agronomic Research for Development (CIRAD)-CATIE.  

If you wish to access the complete recording, you can find the corresponding video below: