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                    Producer Groups In Africa

                    What are Producer Groups (PGs)?
                Producers Groups are partnerships between forest managers and other stakeholders (NGOs, Governments, Bilateral and Multilateral Donors, local communities) that aims to promote improved forest management practices that are socially, ecologically, and economically sustainable.

Why A Producer Group?
There is widespread destruction and degradation of forest areas through unsustainable and illegal logging practices that have become a threat to the long-term viability of the entire forest products.
A Producer Group is an effort to ensure sustainable forest management through the provision of support and services to interested and committed logging companies as well as market links to responsible buyers.

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Who are PG Members?
The members of Producers Groups are:
a) Interested and committed forest managers who need assistance for the improvement of their management activities
b) Processors, who seek to source certified wood raw material for their manufacturing processes.
c) Certified forest managers or processors who need links to markets for their certified forest products.
d) Small and community forest owners who need help developing their forest management, group certification or marketing activities.

What does the PG hope to offer members?
The Producer Group will provide a range of services to members
depending on their needs. These include:

Information and training: information for forest managers about certification - what it is and how to get involved in the process; information on the requirements for SFM and how to implement them; a link between forest managers and the wider certification world, and help to bring them into the debate about interpretation of the standards.

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Similarly information will be provided to processors on issues related to purchasing certified wood and implementing chain of custody.

Contact with buyers: PGs will bring together forest managers and primary processors with potential customers who are looking for certified products; facilitate a two-way flow of information between buyers and potential suppliers of certified products. This will help develop markets for existing products and encourage the supply of new certified products.

Marketing member products: Once producers make the commitments and fulfil the requirements to achieve membership, the PG will use its links with other forest trade networks (FTNs) within the global network to connect them with buyers and help find markets for their products.

Influencing policy: it has become clear that one of the main barriers to certification is inappropriate law and/or policy at the national level. The laws and policies in the sub-region are in transition. Individual forest managers that in the past have appeared to be very powerful are becoming relatively powerless in this transition situation. PGs are likely to provide a stronger voice in negotiating changes to policy and legislation.

Supporting small and low impact management forests: it is now widely recognised that certification can often pose particular problems for small forests and those with low impact management such as community forests. The PG will provide appropriate support to these groups.

Summary requirements for Producer Group Members
The forest manager must be able to:
• Confirm with documentation that the forest is fully licenced with valid harvesting permits;
• Undergo a baseline appraisal of the current level of performance relative to the requirements of credible certification standards.
Based on the appraisal report the forest manager must:
• Make a formal commitment to seek certification within a defined timeframe.
• Confirm that there are no existing issues which preclude certification;
• Develop an action plan showing in detail how full compliance with the standard will be achieved within the timeframe agreed.

The timber processor must be able to:
• Make a formal commitment to responsible forestry management and credible forest certification in all their source forests.
• Commit to exclude timber from unknown, controversial or illegal sources within a defined time period.
• Undergo a baseline appraisal to identify the current sources of all forest products handled.
• Based on the appraisal report the timber processor must:
• Develop an action plan with targets showing in detail how it will source increasing proportions of forest products from the following verified sources:
- Known legal source,
- Legal and progressing to credible certification,
- Credibly certified.

All members must undergo regular audits to check that the commitments made in the action plan are being met.