A plan by Bolivia's leftist government to nationalize timber has unsettled some environmental and business groups working to improve the sustainability of the country's forests.
"It's a time of uncertainty," said Richard Donovan, director of Smartwood, a program of New York-based Rainforest Alliance, a non-profit environment and conservation organization.
"It's not a red light with the government, but it's a yellow light -- so we are just worried about it until we get a clear indication (from the government)," he told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference hosted by Rainforest Alliance.
Bolivia's new government this week announced plans to nationalize land, timber, silver and water resources, while redistributing idle land to poor peasants.
The announcement comes two weeks after President Evo Morales nationalized the country's energy industry. Morales was elected by a landslide vote in December and is Bolivia's first president of indigenous descent.
In 1994, the Bolivian government and the United States Agency for International Development formed a joint project called BOLFOR, aimed at promoting Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification to help sustain the country's forests.
Now Bolivia has more FSC forests than any other tropical country, according to the Rainforest Alliance, which is accredited by FSC.
The global FSC market is worth over $5 billion, thanks to growing sales of FSC products from international retail outlets like Home Depot Inc. (HD.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and IKEA to guitar maker Gibson Guitar Corp.
Rainforest Alliance has certified over 5 million acres (2 million hectares) of Bolivia's forests.
Erwin Roda, a director of Grupo Roda, a conglomerate of Bolivian forestry companies, expressed concern that the government's plan could undermine the standards forest companies must meet in order to get certified.
"(The Bolivian government) is talking about nationalizing the forest, but that's something we don't understand," he said, speaking on the sidelines of the Rainforest Alliance event.
"What it really could affect is the certification for our forest land," he said. "The industry has been certified by external companies, not just Bolivian companies, so that helps a lot in the image ... We are preserving the forests in a better condition now, and we hope that continues," he said.Reuters
