PRECIOUS WOODS AND THE SUSTAINABLE IMPACT

Sustainability as corporate principle for Precious Woods

Since the founding of Precious Woods sustainability is at the core of her corporate philosophy. Sustainability means the creation of added value in economic, ecological and social terms – for investors, employees, business partners and other stakeholders.

The responsibility for the sustainable tasks is with the Board of Directors of Precious Woods Holding Ltd. in Switzerland. It defines the targets and actions to fulfil and guarantee the highest sustainability standards in the group. The BoD has an advisory committee from specialists coming from universities, NGOs and other organizations. 

The added value should be long term and benefiting also future generations. With tropical forestry Precious Woods has taken on one of the biggest sustainability challenges for human kind.

The total forest area under FSC certification was 195 million hectares at the end of 2017, which is greater than the area of Germany, France, Spain and Italy combined. But only 10% of that area covers tropical and subtropical forests, which means they are still highly underrepresented in terms of FSC certification. Precious Woods manages about 6 % of the total FSC certified natural tropical forest area.

Key figures of our forest operations:

  unit Brazil Gabon
Forest area in ha 506 699 596 800
Net forest area in % 78 92
Employees   499 830
Communities   9 44
Harvest volume per year in m3 140 000 240 000
Harvested area per year in ha 11 700 22 000
Harvest volume per ha in m3 12 11
Harvest cycle in years 35 25
FSC certified since 1997 2008
PEFC / PAFC certified since 2017 2017

 

With our activities we contribute to many of the Sustainable Development Goals defined by the United Nations.

What is our resulting impact?

Territorial control:

  • Control of poaching
  • Prevention of deforestation

 

 

Social engagement:

  • Employment /education
  • Additional income
  • Stability
  • Housing
  • Providing healthcare

Natural forest:

  • Conservation of natural forest
  • Growth of natural forest
  • Protecting biodiversity
  • Carbon sink

 

Economic contribution:

  • Investments in poor regions
  • Valuation of forest services
  • Taxes

 

Our contribution to permanent forest protection:

4:1

  • 20 years measurement of wood volume growth
  • 4m3/ha/year growth in managed area compared to 1m3/ha 1)

330 000 000 tC

  • Carbon sequestered by PW forest areas, calculated with 300 tC/ha 2)

Fauna / Flora

  • Large populations of Elephants and Gorillas in Gabon
  • RIL practice protects best existing biodiversity 3)

1) Source: Studies of Universities in Brazil and Schwitzerland, 2) average, 3) Source: WWF

Social engagement:

Employees

  • More than 1 300 local employees with stable income > minimal income
  • Housing for more than 3 500 people in Gabon
  • Education / health

Communities

  • More than 50 communities in our areas
  • Support in events, education and training
  • Additional income possibilities
  • Strong cooperation/support from a bottom-up perspectiv

Economic value:

Government

  • Income taxes from company and employees
  • Forest taxes out of harvesting activities and export duties

Shareholders

  • ROI on a lower level, but combined with the mission a much higher return

Our triple bottom line impact makes the difference!

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