This regional Forum focused on private sector investments in natural tropical forests in Latin America. The Forum was jointly organized by ITTO, the 'Associação Brasileira da Indústria de Madeira Processada Mecanicamente' (ABIMCI), and the Brazilian Government (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Brazilian Forest Service of the Ministry of Environment) and with the support of the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The forum was attended by close to 100 participants, mainly from Latin America (including from all 13 ITTO member countries in the region) as well as from other countries around the world.
The Forum made a significant contribution to increase the level of understanding on opportunities and constraints for investments in natural tropical forest based enterprises in tropical Latin America, and on the kind of information and types of tools available or needed to promote more responsible investment.
Questions that were addressed included:
- Who are the potential investors in natural forest based enterprises in Latin America?
- How do they make investment decisions, and what kind of information do they need?
- What characteristics of natural tropical forest based enterprises in Latin America are particularly attractive to investors?
- How does the overall country-level business climate affect the attractiveness of forest-related investment, and particularly of natural tropical forest based enterprises?
- How can Latin American governments or firms attract more investments for natural tropical forests and what are they currently doing?
- What other mechanisms can be used to make investments for tropical natural forests more attractive?
The Forum proved a great opportunity to make new business contacts and to get updated on the latest trends in forest investments in Latin America, with a particular focus on natural tropical forests. Key presentations were made and panel discussions held on issues affecting investments in tropical natural forests, including: trends and meeting forestry investment needs of the private sector, the role of governments and international organizations in enabling an investment climate, the role of international investors, new investment tools and approaches, ecosystem service payments, analysis of country investment opportunities, and the way forward.
Proceedings of the conference are under preparation and will be published soon. In the meantime, the conference program, participants list, presentations and the summary of recommendations are posted below.
We welcome you to consult and use this data as appropriate. When quoting data given in the Powerpoint presentations, please use the following reference:
Latin American Regional Tropical Forest Investment Forum: Issues and Opportunities for Investment in natural tropical Forests. 23-24 November 2006, Curitiba, Brazil. Published by ITTO.