The Tropical Forest Trust (in English, organization for the tropical forest ) or TFT is an organization created with the the United Kingdom of which the goal is to lay down rules for a supply responsible for wood tropical. These rules ensure the customers to obtain wood tropical not coming from the plundering of the rainy forests.

The TFT is a company with goal nonlucrative recorded and based in the United Kingdom, having also offices in Suisse, in Indonesia, Malaysia and with the Vietnam. It is directed by a board of directors made up representatives of its members as well as independent experts.

In North America and Europe, the demand for wood certified FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) led to the certification of several million hectares of forest. In spite of a structural timber increasing demand tropical certified FSC, only a small portion of this request is satisfied. The managers of tropical forests often encounter problems to conclude certification, they must face very complex contexts of management forest, which makes certification difficult to carry out in the long term. Moreover, wood coming from legal and known sources is in competition in many tropical countries where controls are weak and illegal marking running.

The Tropical Forest Trust is an organization created marketing in March 1999 by companies of the products out of tropical wooden. The TFT helps its members to set up rules for a supply responsible for wood in the tropics.

The TFT helps its members to manage and to supervise their chains of provisioning, it also helps the forests sources of this provisioning to obtain their certification FSC. The TFT currently recognizes Forest Stewardship Council as being the principal international independent organism of certification of the forests, which makes it possible to have the certainty that the forests sources are suitably managed.

The TFT helps its companies members to know the source of the wood which they use or the assistance to knowing why this identification is not possible. Then, it helps them to develop rules for their future wood suppliers.

Lastly, it helps its members to identify the sources of “good wood”, i.e. the certified forests FSC which are able to answer their request or, in the absence of those, of the sources of wood which have or which are about to have an action plan at the TFT in order to obtain certification FSC.

External bonds

• Official site
• Official site in French

Notes and references of the article