• Fair trade

Fair trade

What are the key challenges and opportunities involved in financing forest certification in Malaysia? This report explores economic and market aspects of responsible forestry and certification as well as the current relationship between the financial sector and the forest industry.

The key message of the report is that the reputational risks associated with exposure to the forest industry in Malaysia and the complexities involved in managing those risks are high. Banks and other financial institutions that identify suitably qualified partners to help them both understand and manage the risks involved therefore stand to prosper at the expense of those that do not.

In order to stimulate the growth of forest certification in Malaysia, the authors recommend action in five key areas for improvement:

• improved market information flows
• market research on certification feasibility
• forest industry investment guidelines
• joint bank/forest industry working group; experts from the timber and banking industries could usefully collaborate in a working group on responsible forestry in order to work towards mainstreaming more effective risk management and progressive lending approaches amongst Malaysian banks
• progressive finance facilities.
  

• Full text of document
• Publisher details
• Send to a friend