The visit is taking place from November 17 to 24 and is open to timber importers, traders and distributors. Urban and other local authority procurement personnel, specifiers and end-users are also invited to join the trip.
The initiative is being organised by not-for-profit sustainable timber and forestry advisers and analysts Probos, in association with the NGO Rainforest Alliance. The latter has been active in the Selva Maya for 30 years, supporting technical capacity building and implementation of sustainable forest management.
Participants will visit Selva Maya community forest operations in Guatemala and their counterparts in the area of the forest in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. All are FSC-certified or in the process of achieving certification.
Probos said participants will be able to evaluate timber supply and species available from what is the second largest tropical rainforest in the Americas.
“They will meet key actors across the tropical timber value chain, from established enterprises that have been FSC-certified for over 25 years, to emerging suppliers, private sector stakeholders and governmental bodies,” it stated.
The objective of the mission is to assist these forest operators to break into the international market and, for those already exporting, to broaden their overseas customer base for their timber, and also non-timber forest products.
The organisers of the trip say the Selva Maya community timber and forestry enterprises primarily trade in mahogany and cedar but have access to over 100 lesser-known species. Many of these, they maintain, are commercially viable, can be sourced sustainably and should be brought to market to support industry development. They include chicozapote, tzalam, pucté and manchiche.
Selva Maya forestry operations, said the trip organisers, have so far been unable to adequately exploit such species due to lack of performance and application data, and a lack of online presence on the part of suppliers. This, said Probos, has resulted in limited “engagement with industry leaders who hold the key to driving consumption in national regional and international markets”.
The trade mission, in bringing together demand-side companies with the community forest operators, is billed as a step towards helping overcome these obstacles. And possibilities for commercialising these lesser-known timer species will be another focus of the mission programme.
Generating commercial opportunity for forest and timber operations in the region supports jobs and livelihoods, said the mission organisers, and can also underpin and incentivise sustainable forest management and forest maintenance more widely.
Community organisations, or ‘ejidos’, of the Yucatan Peninsula, who were given title to their local land in the 1930s, manage the northern edge of the Selva Maya forest for timber and a range of number non-timber products. They are described as a critical contributor to the area’s rural economy.
They are governed by regulations on land management and their tradition of sustainable operation, says RA, has helped guard against illegal logging, land conversion, deforestation and forest degradation.
Of the 120 ejidos in the Mexican states of Campeche and Quintana Roo, which include areas of the Selva Maya, 39 report that forestry is their main source of income.
In Guatemala, in the late 1990s 25-year rights to timber and other forest resources were granted to 12 community organisations and two private timber businesses in the multiple use zone of the country’s Maya Biosphere reserve. One condition of these agreements was that community forest operations had to be FSC-certified. Agreements with nine of the community organisations have been extended by the National Council of Protected Areas of Guatemala for a further 25 years. Two new concessions have also been granted to communities.
A previous mission to the Selva Maya forest was organised by RA in 2023, where more timber sector organisations, and associated bodies, plus government offices took part. This resulted in links being made to the European import sector and also Selva Maya timber being used for public works in Rotterdam.
“There were not so many businesses on that trip, but as a result of the outcomes one of the suggestions was that it would be worthwhile to follow up with a trade mission for companies more specifically,” said Probos.
Other recommendations to come out of that first mission included exploring the establishment of a Selva Maya regional forest and timber association, more testing of lesser-known species and a marketing strategy around the Wood of Selva Maya brand.
Source: https://www.probos.nl/evenementen/3777-selva-maya-tropical-timber-trade-mission-november-2024
