Sustainable forestry through corporate-community partnership in the department of Santa Cruz Bolivia has extensive natural forests and one of the most advanced legislations concerning its sustainable exploitation.About 10 million ha of forest in Bolivia are 'under management' by commercial enterprises, rural cooperatives, private individuals and communities. As they lack the necessary resources, communities have little option but to sell their logging rights to informal operating companies that do not care about sustainability, produce wood without required documentation and avoid paying taxes. The extracted logs end up as illegal wood on the local construction market.This is an altogether unsatisfactory situation as:1.	Forest owners get a poor return on their valuable forest capital;2.	Illegal wood competes with legal wood in the local market place;3.	Certified wood processors are short of raw material as they cannot accept illegal wood;4.	The value chain falls considerably short of its potential.Southern Lumber & Veneer L.L.C., is based in the USA and has recently completed a substantial investment in a veneer plant near Santa Cruz, in Bolivia.To meet their raw material needs of its subsidiary SLV Bolivia S.R.L., Southern Lumber and Veneer L.L.C. plans to enter into durable cooperation with Community Forest Organisations (CFOs). The long-term partnership with the CFOs is an essential condition for making investments in local capacity building and will be a stepping stone for communities to achieve a better return on their forest capital.An FSC certified logging service will be set up under a new company (joint venture between Southern Lumber and Veneer L.L.C. USA and SLV Bolivia) that will work with CFOs and assist them to become suppliers of legal, eventually FSC certified, wood. The company will undertake logging according to FSC approved standards, provide forestry equipment and training to CFO workers so that they can participate in the logging operations, deploy mobile equipment to saw wood left over after log sectioning into lumber that CFOs can sell on the local market, and support CFOs on their way to have their forest resources FSC certified. In the pilot phase, contracts will be signed with 3 local CFOs, covering 85,000 ha of forest in Guarayos and Chiquitania, department of Santa Cruz.The project is unique in that the joint venture will provide FSC standard logging services, including equipment, not just to obtain raw materials for their own veneer plant, but also for timber that CFOs sell to other customers. It will contribute to a reduction in illegal logging and increase the income of the forests to local communities.Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)CSR is an essential part of the SLV group's business rationale. Its investors insist on ethical business operations that stand up to public scrutiny. SLV Bolivia's concessions and chain of custody are FSC certified. The joint venture's policies with regard to CSR will be compatible to those of the SLV group.The joint venture's operations will be FSC certified as part of the Chain of Custody. Moreover, it will support CFOs in their efforts to have their managed forests FSC certified so that they can benefit from price premiums paid for certified wood. The joint venture will support the CFOs with technical assistance and forestry equipment as well as long-term contracts that make the CFOs bankable.The FSC certification means that the company has an audited social policy of paying decent wages, all taxes and social contributions, and non-discriminatory hiring and treatment of personnel. The group has a strong anti-corruption policy, expressed in employment contracts. Its managers are required to sign an anti-corruption statement every year, declaring that they have not engaged in bribery or other unethical business practices.The joint venture will provide safe tools and equipment, protective clothing and training to regular staff and seasonal workers, and have a Health & Safety policy, based on the SLV's motto of "safety over productivity".The salaries paid by the joint venture will be at least 50% above the minimum wage level of Bolivia. The joint venture will provide proper employment contracts to its staff and pay all taxes and social contributions.The joint venture will allocate USD 2.00 per m³ of logs to social projects to be implemented in the communities from where the wood originated.Impact•	Employment and working conditionsAt the end of the project the joint venture will employ 96 persons, including 80 machine operators and assistants who are hired only during the logging season (6 months per year) = 56 FTE. This workforce will expand to 280 persons (160 FTE) in 2013 following the tripling of the joint venture's operations.- The gross monthly salaries are far above the legal minimum wage of BOB 648 (66 euro) per month.- Eight high-level employees will receive a salary between 700 euro and 2,450 euro.- Health insurance and other social contributions are part of the gross salaries.- The logging crew will stay in decent forest camps that are FSC approved. There will always be one staff member trained in first aid on site. Staff staying at the forest camps will enjoy free meals and a hardship allowance.•	Chain effectsThe chain effects of the project are substantial and include increased income for communities and third parties. As a rule of thumb in Bolivia, one person directly employed in forestry operations creates indirect employment for 2.6 persons. So with 80 operators and assistants employed by the joint venture, this would work out to 208 persons indirectly employed.Community income increases as follows:1. Access to logging services means that more logs can be harvested.2. If the community forests are FSC certified, the average premium for logging rights is USD 7 per m3, which results in logging fees of USD 42 per ha paid to the community.3. CFO workers will receive about USD 5.00 per m3 from tree felling and log sectioning, or USD 150,000 at the initial scale of operations (30,000 m3 per year).4. Communities will earn additional income from selling logs and timber from species not suitable to veneer production. This concerns about 1/3 of the joint venture's logging in Guarayos, about 7,000 m3 initially which returns an additional income to communities of USD 5.00 per m³.Third parties benefiting from the logging service include:- Wood processors, from increased supply of legal wood.- Transport companies, who also benefit from increased demand for their services to transport the final product to the export harbour (Arica, Chile).•	EnvironmentThe joint venture's own operations will be FSC Chain of Custody certified. Its main client, SLV Bolivia, is similarly certified and has management of 150,000 ha of forest.The joint venture will only engage in partnership with communities, private owners and concessionaires that are committed to sustainable management of their forest resources and willing to seek FSC certification with the joint venture's assistance.By not only logging species suitable for veneer, a higher volume of logs can be sustainable extracted per hectare, so that as a result less forest area is needed to serve the needs of the wood processing industry.•	Position of womenForestry operations are typically the domain of men. Nevertheless, about 10% of the forestry staff will be women, mainly as support staff or (assistant) forestry engineers. At the joint venture's office, 50% of the employees will be female, including one person in management and two in administration.It is important to note that women in the communities benefit from the increased revenues from logging rights, part of which is distributed among community members, equally among men and women. To set up an FSC certified logging service operation, that will work with Community Forest Organisations and assist them to become suppliers of legal (eventually FSC certified) wood, with a capacity of 30,000 m³ per year.