Study finds better forest protection and fewer wildfires in FSC-certified areas in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve

Rainforest Alliance: A new Rainforest Alliance study has found that forest concessions managed in compliance with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification standards have seen fewer wildfires and less deforestation compared with protected and other areas within the Maya Biosphere Reserve, an area of tropical forest in Guatemala's northern Petén region that the government set aside to conserve its unique natural and cultural patrimony.

In 2007, fires affected 0.1 percent of FSC-certified forest concessions in the reserve, down from 6.5 percent in 1998. During the same period, fires affected between 7 and 20 percent of the rest of the reserve. In addition, the average annual deforestation rate in FSC-certified forest concessions between 2002 and 2007 was 20 times lower than the deforestation rate within the protected areas where harvesting of wood and non-timber forest products is prohibited….

"These numbers show that certification is a real tool for the market and for conservation," said José Román Carrera, Central America coordinator for the Rainforest Alliance's TREES program, which works with communities in the Petén. "In these communities, FSC certification has helped strengthen business structures, fire prevention measures and low-impact harvesting practices."

To meet certification standards, forestry communities and companies in the reserve have created fire control and prevention plans, improved living and working conditions for workers, increased the use of safety equipment, experienced less social conflict as a result of better land-use mapping, and created committees to manage land-use, among other things….

Photo by PStreet of Tikal, Wikimedia Commons