What we're doing

The Rainforest Alliance has been working with community forestry operations that harvest ipê and other timber species to ensure that they follow a strict sustainable forest management plan. Located in Bolivia—where ipê is generally sustainably harvested and abundant—the Angel Sandoval Concession was one of the country’s first and largest businesses to become Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC) certified by the Rainforest Alliance. During the 1990s, Bolivia's deforestation rate reached nearly 0.5 percent annually and the country lost 6.5 percent of its forest cover in a fifteen year period (1990 to 2005). Forest loss rates continue to increase: as of 2010, over 741,316 acres (300,000 hectares) of forest are lost annually, according to Bolivia's national forestry agency. In the face of such rampant deforestation, it’s notable that, over the past decade, Bolivia has become a leader in tropical forest certification. More than 3 million acres (1.5 million hectares) of its forests are FSC-certified, making it the third largest FSC certifier in Latin America and the Caribbean. The success of FSC certification in Bolivia promises to help improve forestry practices and conserve the country's globally significant biodiversity.