The importance of tropical forests:
Services for the global environment and economic potential for their inhabitants

For many developing countries and their populations, tropical forests are an important and potentially sustainable source of income, thus contributing to poverty reduction. While timber and timber-based products remain the main products, trade in other forest products (non-timber forest products) is growing in importance. The diversity of these products holds great potential for the future.

190 million m3 of tropical timber are produced each year worldwide, of which 40 million m3 are exported.
For Indonesia, for example, the trade and use of tropical timber and other forest products, including exports and national consumption, represents 15% of its gross domestic product.

For their inhabitants, tropical forests represent not only the main means of subsistence but also a fundamental socio-cultural environment. Thus the conservation of tropical forests plays a crucial role in preserving ethnic diversity.

90 per cent of the 1.2 billion people who live in extreme poverty worldwide depend on forests to cover part of their basic needs. 350 million people living in or close to forests derive a major part of their income and food from forest resources.

Forests contribute to climate regulation, bind the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2), and protect water springs and soils. These environmental services are undervalued economically and insufficiently compensated.

430 billion tonnes of carbon are stored in tropical forest ecosystems.
The deforestation of twelve million ha/year causes a dramatic decline in the tropical soil fertility of this surface area.

Tropical forests constitute the main reserve of species that are found worldwide. The economic potential of biodiversity and its conservation is undervalued. The threat to biodiversity presented by inadequate management is significant.

Tropical forests are of invaluable social and economic importance:
directly and indirectly, local and global, today and especially in the future.

Read more about:
Who are the actors?
Why tropical forests?
Why incentives instead of bans?
What commitment?
Why ITTO?