„I recently visited the Generation Forest project and was truly impressed by the team's vision, dedication, and execution. I'm enthusiastic about the work they are doing, seeing it as a model for success through thoughtful planning and sustainable reforestation practices.

I had the opportunity to visit the Generation Forest that Futuro Forestal maintains in the Colon area. It was a very interesting experience and the impression remains that the Generation Forest model has a very important role to play in efforts to combine genuine income and forest conservation. The Generation Forest merges the native forest with the forest in regeneration and lines with plantations of native and exotic species. The density of trees with economic value makes the Generation Forest in the beginning very attractive for long term investors. On the other hand, the degree of intervention is compatible with the preservation of habitat for species of global significance. Its carbon content is also higher than the one of the secondary forest and could be above the one of primary forests. At the social level, the Generation Forest contributes to the generation of local employment since its maintenance requires labor. In my opinion, the biggest challenge is to be able to scale this model to large areas, and the shortage of professionals with knowledge of the management protocol will be a bottleneck to be addressed. In any case, this management model is very promising and I hope it attracts attention from funding sources.

We at Berkeley Mills strive to design and handcraft pieces that grace our clients with a sense of inner peace. One piece at a time. We support the idea of a new way of tropical forestry proposed by Futuro Forestal. That inner peace that we want to give our clients comes as well from sustainable sourcing of our timber. The Generation Forest would be an ideal source of timber for us to create a positive impact by using a raw material. The respect for nature and local communities combined with economical sense ist what we want. Of course we make no compromise in quality and beauty and we know we will not have to, sourcing timber from Generation Forests. Even though its still quite in the Future, herewith we declare that we would preferably buy our beautiful timber from Generation Forest Projects instead of monoculture Plantations. We are willing to pay at least the same price we pay now for Teak, when the timber comes with the same qualities and beauty.

For a number of years I have watched as Futuro Forestal developed an innovative forest management approach. Starting almost 20 years ago, they were the first Central American forestry services company to establish native species plantations as part of a commercial reforestation activity. Their early work, including the first Forest Stewardship Council certified plantation in Panama, established them as a company that pushed boundaries and sought more out of tropical forestry activities. They were trying to develop and promote a more holistic vision about the future of tropical forestry, a vision that showed how native species and reforestation could help to heal the many wounds left behind from previous, more extractive forestry activities. This goal has led them to develop the Generation Forest concept. A vision of commercial forestry that embraces complexity, as does nature. Their vision has a multi-aged, multi-species, native species focus. Generation Forest rightly allows for local conditions to influence management decisions about; species assemblages, planting spacing, selection harvesting, shelterwood thinning, thinning intensity, monitoring frequency and the inclusion of economic, financial, political, institutional and technological conditions. The Generation Forest is designed to generate value, and revenue, at many steps along the way, and then continue to do so for the long haul. The Carbon sequestration potential of the Generation Forest concept, in Panama, is encouraging.