About the Alliance
Timber and paper are among the world’s most commonly used and traded commodities. Responsible forest management delivers renewable raw material for a wide range of products, provides livelihood for millions of people and contributes to preserving biodiversity. In many regions, however, illegal logging is having unsustainable impacts. It contributes to deforestation, biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions, deprives nations of much needed public revenue, and can lead to social conflict and human rights violations.
To address these challenges, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), launched the Forest Legality Alliance in 2010. The Alliance is an international, multi-stakeholder initiative designed to achieve better forest governance and biodiversity conservation by reducing demand for illegally harvested forest products and increasing the capacity of supply chains to deliver legal wood and paper.
To achieve its goals, the Alliance is pursuing a series of activities:
Educate and build capacity among forest product supply chains about emerging demand-side forest legality policies and new tools for increasing transparency and legality.
Equip forest product supply chain participants with practical, interactive, and freely accessible tools for exercising due care and keeping illegally harvested forest products out of the market.
Demonstrate through a series of pilot tests with volunteer Alliance members that compliance with new demand-side requirements can be feasible and cost-effective, and identify practical ways to reduce and mitigate unintended burdens on importers and producers.
About WRI
The World Resources Institute is an environmental think tank that goes beyond research to find practical ways to protect the earth and improve people’s lives. Our mission is to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth’s environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations.
For more information about WRI, please visit www.wri.org.
About EIA
Since 1984, EIA has used pioneering investigative techniques to expose environmental crimes and campaign against illegal wildlife trade and threats to our global environment. Intelligence reports, documentary evidence, campaigning expertise and an international advocacy network enable EIA to achieve far-reaching environmental protection by spurring changes in market demand, government policy and enforcement related to global trade in wildlife and environmental products.
For more information about EIA, please visit www.eia-global.org.
About USAID
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency that provides economic, development and humanitarian assistance around the world in support of the foreign policy goals of the United States.
For more information about USAID, please visit www.usaid.gov.
This website is made possible in part by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of the Forest Legality Alliance and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.