Bolivian big leaf mahogany (swietenia macrophylla) threatened

The International Tropical Timber Association (ITTO) recently released its bi-weekly report on global timber prices.

One of the highlights of the report was a classification by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) of Bolivia's big leaf mahogany (swietenia macrophylla) as a "species of urgent concern". CITES recommended that Bolivia place a moratorium on its export.

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Community Forestry in the NY Times

Planting Empowerment employee Liriano Opua demonstrates the growth of a 1-yr. cocobolo tree.Planting Empowerment employee Liriano Opua demonstrates the growth of a 1-yr. cocobolo tree. Click for a larger view.A couple of months ago we did a post on a Mexican indigenous community, the model of well-managed community forestry and business in Latin America.

The New York Times did a profile on the same community the other day. The long term vision of Planting Empowerment is to replicate this model not only in Panama, but throughout the rest of Latin America.

We are making progress towards this goal, as we have seen our indigenous community partner of Arimae take increasing ownership of the UNDP-GEF SGP funded project.