Filipino timber producers gain new skills to enhance legal timber production and livelihood generation

With abundant forest resources, Caraga is the foremost timber-producing region in the Philippines; however, it remains the country’s second poorest, owing to low local processing capacity and intricate legality requirements, limiting economic benefits and opportunities for timber producers. The resulting high poverty levels, in turn, drive illegal logging and other illicit activities, such as timber poaching and unregulated harvesting.

Recognizing the intersecting challenges of poverty and illegal logging, the FAO-EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Programme supported The Philippine Center for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development, Inc. (PCEPSDI) to offer targeted capacity building and technical assistance to timber producers in Caraga equipping them with the knowledge and skills to operate legally and benefit economically from legal and sustainable timber production.

Read the full story here: https://www.fao.org/in-action/eu-fao-flegt-programme/news-events/news-d…