SUSTAME: CATALYZING CHANGE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A VALUE CHAIN FOR SUSTAINABLE TIMBER IN SURINAME
Probos supports and promotes sustainable forest management (SFM) worldwide. Under the Cities4Forest program (C4F), which ended March 2024, Probos and partners set up new value chains for ‘conservation timber’ supply to Dutch cities. This pioneering work signaled a great interest in The Netherlands and Europe for timber and timber products from sustainable community forest management operations. However, the supply of conservation timber on the European market remains limited. Therefore, a new project has been initiated together with our local partner in Suriname, ESS, to support the production and supply of conservation timber from Suriname.
Probos and ESS will jointly execute this project, financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) as part of the SUSTAME (SUStainable Timber in SurinAME) program. SUSTAME aims to enhance the capacity of Indigenous and Maroon communities and enable them to address and have a positive impact on the environmental, economic and social sustainability on the forestry sector in Suriname.
Besides the community of Bigi Poika, already supplying conservation timber to the city of Amsterdam under the C4F program, additional forest communities will be identified and selected to join the project and develop their own community forest management (CFM) operations.
The formalization of community forest practices in legal entities, Community Forest Enterprises (CFEs) will be supported by conducting two studies, (1) on global best practices and success factors of CFEs and (2) on the legal requirements for establishing CFEs in Suriname. Furthermore, the legal registration of CFEs will be facilitated in the project.
To stimulate local production capacity and added value, the renting of a mobile sawmill (Lucas Mill) for training purposes will be financed and organized by the project, including a training for interested members of the forest communities. Personal protection equipment (PPEs), tools and supplies for forest inventory and tree felling will also be organized and financed.
As part of C4F, a start was made with the certification process of Bigi Poika under the FSC Continuous Improvement Procedure (CIP). Under the SUSTAME project, we will continue working on the FSC principles and core criteria with Bigi Poika and introduce other communities to the CIP procedure, in order to eventually be able to supply certified timber products.
Conservation Timber from Suriname will be branded and promoted in Europe, by designing and disseminating promotional materials and involving key market players. In Suriname, a large stakeholders’ information-sharing event will be organized to involve relevant stakeholders.
Information
Probos expert(s) involved: Eli Prins, Mark van Benthem
Client(s): Inter-American Development Bank (IADB)
Project period: 2024 - 2025