14^th December 2011
Thesis on C02-emission trading
Our manager Jacqueline Jakob-Gallmann has completed her thesis on CO2-emission trading which she wrote in her free time. The thesis with the title “Regulatory Issues in the Carbon Market – The Linkage of the Emission Trading Scheme of Switzerland with the Emission Trading Scheme of the European Union“ was rewarded “magna cum laude” by the Faculty of Law and published on 5 December 2011 as volume 127 in the series of publications by the Europe Institute of the University of Zurich. If you are interested to learn more about CO2 emission trading, please contact Jacqueline Jakob-Gallmann, who will be happy to send you a copy in exchange for a contribution fee.

15^th March, 2011
FSC-Recertification
Our plantations have successfully passed the yearly control and been recertified by Forest Stewardship council (FSC). FSC-label (PDF, 24 KB)

11^th 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)

22^nd 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 21^st 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 21^st 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.

16^th December 2009
Our plantations have been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) valid until November 2014. (FSC-certificate (PDF, KB 266))