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22nd
June 2011
Obituary
We are very sad to have to announce that our
Director of the Board, Frank Werner
Bosshardt, passed away on 16th June 2011.
Werner Bosshardt was a very active and committed
Director from the outset of the rescue activity of
Forests for Friends and was a trusted and reliable
mentor to the executive directors. His decades of
experience in sustainable business and in Latin
America, his calm and prudent character made him an
important partner and a focus member of the Board up
until the end.
15th March,
2011
FSC-Recertification
Our plantations have successfully
passed the yearly control and been recertified
by Forest Stewardship council (FSC).
11th
November 2010
ecoLife, the Swiss Magazine for
Sustainability, has published an article on The
Tree Partner Company (ecoLife 5/10)
The article presents Forests For Friends and The
Tree Partner Company and their business. You can read more about it here:
ecological wood-plantations in Panama
(German only, PDF, 1,58 MB)
Portrait of Carol
Franklin in Context, the magazine for
professional business careers in Switzerland
You can read
more about her here:
Panama is so beautiful (German only, PDF,
888 KB)
22nd July 2010
„To protect tropical rain forests
completely would be the best thing we could do
for the climate and biodiversity - but it is
unrealistic. A combination of protected areas
and sustainable forestry, however, may be
successful.“ (Lukas Denzler, „The
Fate of the Tropical Rain Forests“, NZZ 21st
July 2010, German only)
Tropical rain forests are disappearing despite
the fact that their significance is widely known
and efforts to protect them have been
intensified since the Convention to Protect the
Climate and Biodiversity in 1992. The scientist
and author, Lukas Denzler, shows in an
interesting article in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung
of 21st July 2010 that the
sustainable, FSC-certified timber production is
an effective, long-term protection of the
rainforests. The benefits of sustainable
management lie in minimally intrusive
interventions that harm the biodiversity as
little as possible and in the preservation of
the managed forests as the habitat of endangered
animal and plant species. The main reasons for
the lack of resonance to the sustainable
management lie in the fact that global market
prices for certified wood are currently too low
and governmental institutions in tropical areas
are too weak to enforce sustainable management.
We should like to thank Mr Denzler for this
interesting article and are glad that we can
contribute to the protection of the rainforest
with our FSC-certified hardwood plantations –
even if we realise that it is but a drop in the
ocean.
16th December 2009
Our plantations have been certified by
the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) valid until
November 2014. (FSC-certificate
(PDF, KB 266))
16th December 2009
Forests for Friends is not in danger!
The Board of Directors would like to emphasise
clearly that nobody owns 47% of Forests for
Friends' shares and that Forests for Friends is
not being taken over by anybody. If somebody
were to own such a participation (which is
impossible due to the number of shareholders),
the right to vote would be limited to 3%. This
complies with our Bye-Laws which have been
accepted by the Swiss Authorities and are
registered in the Commercial Register.
Therefore, an unfriendly takeover is not
possible.
We can reassure our shareholders: Forests for
Friends is stable and not in danger!
8th December 2009
New Version: Castle Gate Holdings
"Dears Forests For Friends Team,
Today I received a telephone call from a Mr
Dupont "from New York". In the e-mail he is
called "David Dupont" in the documents "Brian
Dupont". :-) He wanted to give me 9,000 Euro
credit, as, he said, I had invested 9,000 Euro
in Prime Forestry. I would have to pay in
another 5,500 Euro to receive 14,500 Goldfinger
shares.
In your News of 26/11/2009 you mention that the
money is supposed to go to a bank in Mexico. In
the meantime there seems to be the version of
Castle Gate Holdings, which is supposed to
receive the money via the Global Bank of
Commerce in Antigua. The payment is routed over
the Deutsche Bank. But the story of the 47% that
the company already owns and which will be
increased to 51% in the coming weeks is the
same. The gentleman also told me that he himself
had lost 150,000 Euro with Prime Forestry and
that he wanted to get his investment back with
this profit."
1st December 2009
Beekman Securities Corporation
is also willing to accept our shares as payment
for Goldfinger shares …
Here is a report from one of our shareholders:
"Dear Chairman!
I am a small shareholder since Prime Forestry
and still with you in F. f. F
I have resently been abused from a guy who
called himself, David Goodwell in Beekman
Securities Corporation, New York. He represents
Goldfingers in the takeover of our company and
offers a 1 to 2 deal with shares that will be
possible to trade in the Frankfurt Stock market
soon. Each share will be 1 €. He also offers an
extension after the first deal. To back up this
one he tells you about a meeting he just
attended between, Wells Fargo-Merrill Lynch-Goldfingers
Corp. and himself repr. Beekman S.C. That
meeting indicated a possible worth of 3.5-4
times when the new shares become official. Very
good deal, indeed!"
The payment is to be made via The Bank of New
York to the Figuala branch of Banco Mercantil
del Norte SA, Monterrey, Mexico, to the ultimate
beneficiary Guardian International SA de CV in
Cuernavaca, Mexico.
Forests for Friends is not being taken over in a
friendly nor unfriendly manner. Please do not
believe any such stories and be very careful
with such offers and your money!
26th November 2009
Once again the addresses of the former
Prime Forestry tree partners are being abused.
This time by Infinity Exchange Board / "Goldfingers"
The person is calling "from New York" and goes
under the name of either Steven Weber or Dr.
Brian Dupont. The offer is being made by
Infinity Exchange Board, a company in Malaysia,
who is said to be in the process of an
unfriendly takeover of Prime Forestry / Forests
for Friends for an unnamed client. Our Company,
the caller says, is in financial difficulties
and on the verge of collapsing. The client is
said to have 47% already. The offer refers to
Prime Forestry shares(!), which are to be
swapped with shares of "Goldfingers".
Goldfingers describes itself on its website as a
future (!) company which – in virtual (!) shops
- lends money for gold items. Of course, the
swap is not one-to-one: the
"Prime-Forestry"-shareholder must pay an
additional 50% in advance. The money is to be
paid via New York to the Banco Mercantil del
Norte SA in Monterrey, Mexico.
As always we advise our shareholders to
investigate this business in depth before they
send any money ….
If we hear of any new developments, we will keep
you informed as usual on our website under
"News".
By the way, we are happy to say that the company
and the trees are in better shape than ever.
19th November 2009
Updated Information regarding Chapman
Mediation Group
We have just been informed by an investor
(fortunately not a shareholder of Forests for
Friends) that he sent the Chapman Mediation
Group a major amount and has not heard anything
from the Group since then. He has filed a
complaint with the Chinese Regulator. This
information confirms our misgivings and we
advise our shareholders to be very careful in
their dealings.
19th November 2009
Telephone callers are active again
We are hearing from shareholders that
they are – once again – being approached by
telephone, this time from New York. The caller
offers to buy shares. Since we started, we have
encountered such activities and have warned our
shareholders on our website.
In the past, the offer was an exchange of
Forests-for-Friends shares for another share or
certificate, but with a steep additional
payment. We assume that the deal would be closed
after the money has been paid and that the other
party would be happy with the easily-earned
money. We have never received a cession request
from a shareholder following such a deal. We
would not agree to such a cession; this lies in
the competence of the Board. The addresses are
probably from former Prime-Forestry employees.
Forest for Friends is in better shape than ever.
We visited the plantations with Romano Costa,
our forest engineer on the Board, last week and
the growth rates are pleasing. In addition, many
shareholders subscribed to the convertible bond
or gave loans.
The share cannot be traded on a stock market. A
listing would not make sense for a rescue
company; it would be far too expensive and would
attract raiders. You can sell your shares on a
private basis anytime, if you find a buyer and
agree on a price.
So do not worry, but do not take any risks!
28th October, 2009
New Manager for Forests for Friends AG
By employing Jacqueline Jakob-Gallmann, the
Board of Directors has implemented the most
important finding of its risk analysis.
24th September, 2009 (see also 31st
August 09)
Update on the telephone calls and the
questions about your shares
We now have an example of an E-mail and the
questionnaire sent by the company searching for
information about our shareholders'
participation in Forests for Friends Ltd.
•
E-Mail (PDF, 65 KB)
•
Questionnaire (PDF, 25 KB)
The lady is obviously called Amanda Doyle and
the company is Chapman Mediation Group in
Hongkong. Representatives of this company
already approached our shareholders about two
years ago.
We advise our shareholders not to accept
the offer and not to provide any information.
15th September 2009
Marketing by Life Forestry
Over the past few weeks we have been hearing
from our shareholders that they have been
receiving unsollicited e-mails from a "Life
Forestry Group". We have been asked about Life
Forestry and particularly where the addresses
come from.
We would like to clarify that we have never
given anybody our investors' addresses,
that we do not cooperate with Life Forestry in
any way
that no cooperation is envisaged.
We do not really know the company and cannot
recommend a cooperation in any way.
28th October 2008
Again we are hearing
from shareholders that they are being approached
– unsolicited and persistently – by
representatives of the firm Kimberley Capital
Corporation based in Glen Rock New Jersey, USA,
with the offer either to exchange the "rights"
of investors of Prime Forestry or their shares
in Forests for Friends Ltd plus an additional
payment, which must be paid in advance, for
other shares or participate in a Class action
lawsuit which Kimberly Capital is undertaking on
behalf of an unspecified Hollywood producer
client.
We should like to state that in this case, too,
we do not know this firm and do not work with
it. We recommend extreme caution and suggest you
make detailed investigations before executing
such a transaction. We cannot voice an opinion
on the respectability of these offers.
10th
April, 2008
"Forest
Investment: Managing the past and going forward"
Approximately 3,000 „tree partners“ of the
former Swiss Prime Forestry AG faced a total
loss of their investment in May, 2006. Then the
rescue company „Forests for Friends Ltd“ took
over the teak plantations in
Panama
. The managers have now
established a further company and are setting up
new sustainable plantations. ECOreporter.de
interviews the chairman of the Board, Carol
Franklin, on finances, good and bad soil, plans,
and revenue.
– Interview im ECOreporter.de-Sondermagazin vom
10.4.2008 (PDF, 174 KB) only in German
–
www.ecoreporter.de
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