PROFOR's manager, Peter Dewees, is attending UNFF 10 in Istanbul this week. He mentioned "brilliant and inspiring films" that were presented at a side-event on Forest Heroes, produced in some cases by very young (Sébastien Pins is 23) and talented film-makers. For those of us who did not make it, here are the movies now, in alphabetical order: Amazing Grace by Rowan Pybus, South Africa An Unseen World by Paul Rosolie, USA Feel like a Mountain by Elio Alonso Vasquez Miranda, Peru Ma forêt by Sébastien Pins, Belgium Reynaldo by Dan Childs & Nick Werber, UK

River Cess County, Liberia – Timber! A large valuable tree is felled in a tropical forest in Liberia once logged over for war profit. Soon after Prince Logan, a 34-year old chainsaw operator, deals the final blow to a tall Lovoa tree, creating daylight as the tree crashes through dense neighboring vegetation, Apollo Barcon, a 39-year old felling clerk, scrambles over vines and branches with a clipboard in hand. Barcon’s job is to apply a barcode and record the tree on a tree data form which will help track the log all the way from the stump to the point of export. That tracking system, known…

In a newly published guide, author Dominic Elson starts from the premise that people should not be seen simply as "labor" or people who are in the way of "capital" and need to be paid off, but rather co-investors in the creation of wealth from forest investments. At COFO, back in September 2012, he sat down with PROFOR to explain this paradigm shift (see diagram and video interviews here). The Guide to Investing in Locally Controlled Forestry was published in January by The Growing Forest Partnerships initiative, in association with FAO, IIED, IUCN, The Forests Dialogue and the World Bank. It…

On September 27, 2012, during World Forest Week, PROFOR and FAO co-organized a panel discussion entitled "A Fair Share of the Pie," which brought together experts looking at the issue of benefit sharing. The session provided an opportunity to discuss and share ideas about ways of establishing partnerships and effective benefit sharing arrangements. It presented insights on how to share benefits and create incentives for REDD+ and sustainable forest management through partnerships involving communities and the public and private sectors. We reproduce below some of the Questions and Answers…