About Forests Monitor

Forests Monitor was established in July 1993 in response to the need for corporate based information in the forestry sector. We are a non-profit making, non-governmental organisation incorporated as a private limited company in January 1995. Forests Monitor is in Roster Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

Aims of the organisation:

1. To provide detailed research and analysis of forestry companies to NGOs and citizens' groups directly affected by those companies so that, through increased knowledge and understanding, they are able to empower themselves to make informed decisions about their future and to lobby more effectively.
2. To research, analyse and raise awareness of forestry companies’ activities and the links between trade, investment and deforestation.

How Forests Monitor will achieve these aims:

• Collation of detailed corporate and financial information about companies operating in the forestry sector, together with their environmental and social records.
• Dissemination of this information in a number of appropriate formats to NGOs and citizens' groups around the world who are directly adversely affected by unsustainable forestry company activities.
• Production of reports and briefings on environmentally and socially unsustainable forestry companies; international trade in forest products and corporate governance. These publications are for distribution at an international level to NGOs and decision makers in the private and public sectors. The aim is to keep these groups well-informed and able to work towards the long-term sustainable management of forest resources.
• Establishment of the links between institutional investors and deforestation via investment in companies which operate in an environmentally and socially unsustainable manner around the world.

Rationale:

The context for Forests Monitor's work is the provision of specialist information within the framework of the implementation of internationally agreed processes such as those established by the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. These include Agenda 21 and the Non Legally Binding Authoritative Statement of Principles for a Global Consensus on the Management, Conservation and Sustainable Development of all types of Forests (Forests Principles). Forests Monitor's aims and activities are orientated towards the achievement of the long-term protection of forest resources, through conservation, sustainable management and the increased involvement of NGOs and local communities, and as such support and build on the goals of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.

In particular, we hope that the work of Forests Monitor will assist in achieving the following internationally agreed principles:

Principle 2(c) of the Forests Principles states that:

"The provision of timely, reliable and accurate information on forests and forest ecosystems is essential for public understanding and informed decision making and should be ensured."

Principle 14 of the Earth Summit Rio Declaration states that:

"States should effectively cooperate to discourage or prevent the relocation and transfer to other States of any activities and substances that cause severe environmental degradation or are found to be harmful to human health."