Forest Certification in Brazil: advances, innovations and challenges.

Veríssimo, A., Smeraldi, R. e Azevedo, T In: Burger, D., Hess, J. and Lang, B (Eds.).
Of the countries in the South, in Brazil forest certification by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has progressed the most. The area certified by the FSC in Brazil reached 3 million hectares in December 2004, placing the country fifth place worldwide. Brazil also has the largest area of certified tropical forest in the world, with around 1.3 million hectares in the Amazon. Brazil has been a benchmark in the strategic areas of promoting certification, for example with the creation of the group of buyers of certified wood in 2000, or the setting up of the group of producers of certified wood of the Amazon in 2003. Brazil furthermore held the first FSC national trade fair and started a broad consumer campaign to promote the trademark. Such advances are backed by the catalysing forces of the Alliance for the Consumption of Certified Forest Products made up of the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) Friends of the Earth – Brazilian Amazon, Imazon (Amazonian Institute of People and the Environment) and Imaflora (Institute for the Management and Certification of Forests and Agriculture).
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