The United States is the First country that promised to contribute 170 million euro to the fund of the British prince Charles, which target is preservation of the tropical rainforest.

Deforestation

This amount of money is part of a larger sum. In exchange for the money the tropical countries have to leave parts of the forest intact. This way of preventing deforesting slowly begins to gain popularity. Norway and Guyana have recently made an agreement, which states that Norway finances projects to conserve the forest of Guyana. The United Kingdom is pressured to follow America. Their commitment results from a recent conference organized by prince Charles. Charles asked the richer countries to take on responsibility to finance forest conservation in the tropical, mostly poor countries. The United Nations strongly feel for the so called REDD-system of which the financial construction is a part.

The purchase of round wood in the Finnish woodworking industry has increased with 10 percent in October compared to September. Much more than 1.7 million cub on commodities is needed to let the Finnish plants run on a healthy level.

Numbers Finnish Forest Industries Federation

The numbers over the degree in which the strains are purchased are collected by the Finnish Forest Industries Federation FFIF. There is so far in 2009, 7.4 million cubic meter round wood from private forests purchased and that is 71% less than in 2008. Spruce and pine were with 63% less purchased and birch logs with 79%. According to the FFIF has the temporary tax on wood procurement hardly any effect. Because of the bad demand have particularly the sawmills big trouble to achieve the process of profitable timber volumes.

The influence of the recession is becoming visible. Recent numbers gave rise to a pessimistic view about American timber and hardwood trade.

The total sales of American sawn hardwood represent a value of slightly less than 400 million euro for the first 9 months of 2009. This is 30% less than the same period in 2008.

Veneer sales collapsed with nearly 41% to value just over 110 million euro. Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany were the biggest customers of American sawn and veneer hardwood.

The Norwegian Borregaard Ingedients has launched their new product on the fair FiE in Frankfurt: vanilla-extracts out of wood. The ecological footprint of this variant has the potential to make this product a big success.

Vanilla is a flavor originating from the creep orchid. But the most important flavoring vanilline is generally synthetic, out of price- and supply considerations.

Borregaard uses the vanilla-like substance that occurs in naturally in the bark of fir. Vanillin was developed for use in different industries: dairy industry, candy products and bakeries. Unique selling point in ‘sustainable times’ is the much lower CO2-emissions Vanallin production produces. Emissions are a lot less than production of traditional vanilla.

Congo-Kinshasa regrets that it is not involved with the debate about deforestation in Copenhagen. There’s a lot at stake for the country, especially now clear agreements about a system for compensation is a viable options.

Congo-Kinshasa finances a study into deforestation scenarios for the next twenty years so they will not show up empty handed in Copenhagen. Minister Endundo doesn’t think that he can forbid the population to cut wood, without anything in return. He estimates that it will cost 2 milliard euro to protect the forests, as much as the annual state budget of Congo-Kinshasa. He also thinks that commercial logging is not a big threath to the forests. The minister stresses that given the intended population growth immediate action is neccessary, because the problem will only increase the next decade.