Sustainable management of SDF is innovative and differs from both plantation forestry on the one hand and natural primary tropical forest management on the other. Most forestry projects today either consist of the protection, conservation and management of primary forests or of conventional even-aged forest management. To reconcile ecological and economic objectives, the approach should be based on a set of alternative principles including the avoidance of clear-cutting, emphasis on structural diversity, small scale variability, the deployment of mixed local species with natural regeneration and the avoidance of intensive site preparation.
These principles ensure the balance between ecological concerns and importance of local biodiversity, economic interest to optimise monetary value-creation and long-term social interest to have functioning forest eco-systems.
Social Progress
- The FCCF aims to provide sustainable income streams for those living around the forest. They provide a safety net for rural communities when crops fail and act as a buffer for impacts of climate change and natural hazards.
- Communities have access to a diversified flow of incomes, reaching from direct employment over land lease payments to eco-tourism.
- FCCF follows a bottom-up approach: the Fund largely focuses on building financing and technical solutions addressing the needs of smallholders and communities.
Economic Development
- An average of 75 qualified forestry and timber processing jobs are created for each 1,000 hectares of forest in traditional forestry projects (1). Additionally, land lease and profit sharing schemes financially benefit local landowners as the Fund avoids land ownership.
- Cooperative models and profit sharing schemes ensure that economic benefits are shared equitably amongst actors.
Environmental Protection
- Mesoamerican forests are one of the largest biodiversity hotspot on earth. These areas with significant numbers of endemic species are currently under threat. Many species are in dramatic decline, mainly due to habitat loss. FCCF offers a model by which the forests hosting such biodiversity are enabled to recover. The actions of the Fund contribute to the preservation of soil and water.
- Forests contribute to climate change mitigation in important ways. They present a low-cost, nature-based solution for carbon sequestration. They sequester and store carbon and can substitute for other raw materials to generate energy or construction. FCCF enhances the forests potential for carbon sequestration through two channels: carbon storage due to avoided deforestation and to (enhanced) forest growth.
(1) Our model bridges a financial gap for landowners, allowing them to earn a living whilst nurturing the forest to profitability. Once achieved, this land use is more profitable than any other (soy bean cultivation, cattle ranching, etc.) and, critically, can continue indefinitely, preserve biodiversity and mitigate climate change.