Despite the high costs and long registration times, sustainable timber harvesting has the potential to bring more value to rural Colombians while also acting as an effective and important conservation tool. Forest management plans are critical to establishing which trees should be exploited, as well as setting standards for related processes so that the environmental impact can be minimized and deforestation avoided

“The problem that we have always had is that with the number of intermediaries, we were forced to sell at very, very cheap prices. The only one who doesn’t profit is the one who harvests!” says Ricardo Florez Mosquera, the leader of Cocomacia. “We are looking for a way that the value which would have gone to the intermediary can then go to the communities.” But Colombia is not the only country that faced imbalance of supply and demand.