Based on a recommendation from the International Finance Corporation, Dr. Andrew F. Howard was invited to participate on an expert panel to advise Forest Trends and ProForest on the development of a tool which companies, financial institutions, and other stakeholders can use to develop and implement their own internal policies for incorporating forest certification into due diligence exercises. The project involves benchmarking some 15 different forest certification systems from around the world against a standardized set of principles and criteria. Bank of America, Citigroup Inc., JP Morgan Chase, and TD Bank Financial Group are funding this project.

Dr. Howard was involved in a series of similar projects for the International Finance Corporation, evaluating the Brazilian and Chilean national forest certification systems, and the application of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) system to a project in Uruguay. The first meeting of the expert panel was held in Washington, DC in early July of 2007.

Forest Trends and ProForest Forest Certification Assessment and Gap Analysis Concept Document ( 64 Kb)