RAFT PROJECT

The Responsible Asia Forestry and Trade (RAFT) program, builds on the successes of the Global Development Alliance, a USAID-sponsored program in Indonesia, and applies lessons learned on a regional scale. RAFT works with forest producers in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Papua New Guinea. Additionally, RAFT works in other countries such as China, Japan, Singapore, members of the European Union, and the U.S. to address procurement and investment policies that promote the legal timber trade.

The RAFT initiative focuses on promoting responsible timber trade and the sustainable management of forest resources and biodiversity. The initiative aims to improve forest management practices, promote timber trade from certified legal sources, reduce forest-related conflict, and strengthen regional cooperation on forest management and trade.

The Nature Conservancy leads a partnership of organizations in an synergetic effort to :

increase regional trade from legal timber sources, measurably improve sustainability of forest management on the ground, strengthen regional cooperation on forest management and trade, contribute toward climate change abutment.

Partners in the RAFT project are TNC, IUCN, RECOFTC, TFF, TFT, WWF, and TRAFFIC.

TNC's contract with TFF it's now in its fourth year and is predicated on the promotion and training of reduced impact logging techniques. Reduced impact logging training addresses a key obstacle to good forest management that influences the ability of regional forest producer to meet the standards of credible independent certification.

TNC has dramatically increased the funding alocation to the TFF to extend training in RIL for willing concessions in the major forest provinces in Indonesia including an expansion of activities into Papua New Guinea.