Report Archive
Our archive covers reports, assessments and papers published between 2004 and today under the ITS Global, World Growth, Article Three and Oxley-Hegarty imprints., covering trade policy and investment, forestry and forest certification, palm oil, climate and land use, and resource taxation across the Asia-Pacific
Trade Policy
Free trade agreements, WTO negotiations, APEC trade facilitation, and services and investment liberalisation.
Bilateral Trade Wars
Understanding the implications for Australian agriculture
ITS Global · May 2019 · For AgriFutures Australia, AgriFutures publication 19-023, ISBN 978-1-76053-044-0
Assesses what the return of bilateral trade wars means for Australian agriculture, arguing that short-term gains from trade diversion are outweighed by longer-term costs as the rules-based system weakens and trading conditions become less predictable.
Free Trade Agreement Utilisation Study
ITS Global · November 2017 · For the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Subcontracted to PwC Australia
Study of how Australian businesses use the country's free trade agreements, based on focus groups, interviews and a survey of over 530 respondents. Finds high awareness and rapid uptake of the North Asian agreements for improved price competitiveness.
Now for Investment
Looking beyond trade in the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement
ITS Global · June 2017 · For ANZ, ANZ insight, Issue 8
Examines the investment dimension of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, covering perceptions and profitability of Chinese investment in Australia, its diversification, and opportunities in soft commodities, food and beverage, construction, real estate and tourism. Published bilingually.
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Survey of Regulatory Measures in Environmental Services
ITS Global · November 2016 · For the APEC Committee on Trade and Investment, With the Australian APEC Study Centre at RMIT University and the APEC Policy Support Unit; APEC#216-SE-01.15
Surveys regulation of environmental services across APEC economies, covering sewerage, waste, sanitation and remediation. Finds most measures non-discriminatory and not directly restrictive, while noting the complexity created by regulation across national and sub-central levels of government.
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A New Foundation for Asia-Pacific Growth in the Twenty-First Century
The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement
ITS Global · October 2015
Argues that investment rather than trade flows now signal growth, that globalisation has become the norm rather than the change agent, and that the Trans-Pacific Partnership supplies architecture the WTO's decision-making has become too unwieldy to deliver.
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Winning the Away Game
Australia-based global companies and the economy
ITS Global · August 2015 · For ANZ, ANZ insight, Issue 7; with EY, Independent Economics and the Sexton Marketing Group
Examines the contribution of Australia-based global companies to the domestic economy through outward investment and export growth, and argues the income tax treatment of foreign-sourced income disadvantages Australia as a base for such firms.
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Australia's Jobs Future
The rise of Asia and the services opportunity
ITS Global · April 2015 · For ANZ, With PwC and Asialink Business
Argues services can become Australia's largest export to Asia by value added by 2030, supporting a million jobs, by closing half the gap between services engagement with Asian neighbours and with traditional Western partners.
Trans-Pacific Partnership
Free trade architecture to boost global growth
ITS Global · September 2014
Published under the firm's TPP for Business programme in cooperation with the European Centre for International Political Economy. Argues the agreement's scope and coverage will shape open markets across the Asia-Pacific and is likely to widen over time.
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Taiwan and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)
An Australian perspective
ITS Global · December 2014
Makes the case for Taiwan's accession to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership from an Australian standpoint, arguing that most member economies would gain and that inclusion would strengthen the agreement's supply chain coverage.
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Aggregate Measurement of Trade Transaction Costs in APEC 2007-2010
ITS Global · August 2011 · For the APEC Committee on Trade and Investment, With the APEC Policy Support Unit; APEC#211-SE-01.09
Estimates trade transaction costs across the 21 APEC economies for each year from 2006 to 2010, forming the final assessment of the second Trade Facilitation Action Plan against the leaders' goal of a five per cent reduction.
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Assessing Australia's Trade and Investment with Asia
Business Council of Australia contribution to the development of a strategy for Australia in the Asian Century
ITS Global · 2011 · For the Business Council of Australia
Assesses Australia's economic engagement with Asia, which took 63 per cent of exports in 2010, and the near doubling of Asian direct investment in Australia since 2006. Identifies risks to that position and priorities for policy.
Study of Regional and Bilateral Agreements by the Productivity Commission
Analysis of recent developments
ITS Global · April 2010 · For the Business Council of Australia
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Services International Linkages
The importance of embodied services in trade and paths to increased trade
ITS Global · November 2010 · For the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Examines Australia's services trade, with emphasis on embodied services, the intermediate inputs consumed in producing exported goods. Finds services industries 1.7 times more important to export performance than recorded services trade suggests, and identifies paths to growth.
Download PDF (112 pp)
Individual Action Plan Peer Review of Malaysia
Study report 2009
ITS Global · February 2009 · For the APEC Secretariat, APEC 2009/SOM1/011anx2
APEC peer review of Malaysia's Individual Action Plan against the Bogor Goals, assessing progress across tariffs, non-tariff measures, services, investment, standards, customs, intellectual property, competition policy, procurement, deregulation, trade facilitation and transparency.
Download PDF (249 pp)
Australia-Republic of Korea Free Trade Agreement Feasibility Study
ITS Global · April 2008 · For the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, With the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy
Joint government feasibility study with the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy. Examines bilateral trade and investment trends, measures affecting goods, services and investment, and models the economic impact of liberalisation using the Monash Multi-Country framework.
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Make Trade Free
How the Doha Round can reduce poverty
World Growth · By Alan Oxley, foreword by Rt Hon Mike Moore
Argues the Doha Round's completion is the most effective available route out of poverty and criticises both the WTO's negotiating culture and the campaign groups seeking to load the organisation with objectives beyond trade. Foreword by Mike Moore.
Download PDF (29 pp)
Investment
Foreign investment regulation in Australia and the cost of restricting inbound capital.
Foreign Investment in Australia: China and Common Sense
ITS Global · May 2009
Argues that foreign capital has driven every major phase of Australia's development and that Chinese investment in mineral projects is the next stage, warning against restricting inbound capital during a downturn when investment is most needed.
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Foreign Direct Investment in Australia: The Increasing Cost of Regulation
ITS Global · September 2008
Argues that changes to Australia's foreign investment screening, introduced to address state-owned investors particularly from China, risk reducing inbound investment and constraining growth at a time when Australia's outbound investment is approaching inbound levels.
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Agriculture
Commodity market access, safeguards, and the effect of trade disputes on Australian producers.
An Opportunity at Risk?
Asia's burgeoning agriculture markets
ITS Global · 2015 · By Alan Oxley; presented to ABARES 2015
Argues that Asia's expanding middle class and its shift towards protein consumption present Australian agriculture its largest opportunity in generations, but that a predominantly small-farm sector and shrinking farmland leave it poorly positioned to capture it.
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Australian Pork and Safeguards: An Industry in Crisis
Bound with The crisis in the pig meat industry: the Productivity Commission report on use of WTO safeguards, February 2008
ITS Global · December 2007 · For Australian Pork Limited, Combined volume of the December 2007 and February 2008 reports
Two reports on the Australian pork industry's use of WTO safeguards during the 2007 import surge, examining the Productivity Commission's December accelerated report and its refusal to find injury from imports, and the implications for the Safeguards Agreement.
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Sustaining Australia's Wheat Export Markets
ITS Global · November 2006 · For AWB
Examines the single desk arrangement for Australian wheat exports, its effect on grower welfare and Australia's position in world markets. Concludes further deregulation is warranted but should be gradual and tied to global trade reform and domestic structural adjustment.
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A Background Paper for the Strategic Plan of Action on ASEAN Cooperation in Food and Agriculture (2005-2010)
ITS Global · July 2004 · For the ASEAN Secretariat, REPSF Project 03/004; with the Center for Food and Agribusiness, University of Asia and the Pacific; as International Trade Strategies Pty Ltd
Background paper for the ASEAN Strategic Plan of Action on food and agriculture. Reviews global and regional trends to 2010, evaluates the 1999 to 2004 plan against emerging developments, and recommends strategic directions for the successor plan.
Palm Oil Benefits for PNG
Building rural growth
ITS Global · September 2013
Argues palm oil offers Papua New Guinea's largest agricultural development opportunity, generating the fastest output growth relative to population, sustaining smallholder incomes in remote areas and slowing urban drift as the population approaches ten million.
Download PDF (16 pp)
Smallholders
Costs and challenges of small-farmer certification
World Growth · March 2013 · Palm Oil Green Development Campaign
Examines the cost and administrative burden that Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil certification places on smallholders, and argues that requiring their compliance departs from the consensus on how sustainability standards should apply to small producers.
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The Economic Benefits of Palm Oil in Papua New Guinea
ITS Global · March 2011
Assesses palm oil's contribution to Papua New Guinea, where it accounts for around 39 per cent of agricultural export earnings and provides income to more than 160,000 rural people, against development indicators showing 40 per cent below the poverty line.
Download PDF (58 pp)
A Roadblock to Food Security
How halting land conversion threatens food security in Africa: a palm oil case study
World Growth · November 2011 · Green Papers, Issue IX; foreword by President J. A. Kufuor
Examines palm oil's expansion in Africa against a food security situation in which more than a third of sub-Saharan Africans are malnourished and half the food insecure are smallholders, and argues sustainability standards restricting development would worsen it.
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The Economic Benefit of Palm Oil to Indonesia
World Growth · February 2011 · Palm Oil Green Development Campaign
Examines the no-conversion agenda's effect on Indonesia, following the 2010 Indonesia-Norway letter of intent suspending new peat and natural forest concessions and the World Bank's 2010 framework for engagement in the palm oil sector.
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Clarification of the European Commission's Position on the Renewable Energy Directive
World Growth · August 2010 · Green Papers, Issue V
Explains that the European Commission's communication excluding oil palm from the definition of forest is non-binding and does not amend the Renewable Energy Directive itself, and examines the competing interests the Directive has set against one another.
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The Issue of Indirect Land Use Change Associated with Biofuel Consumption
Submission to the European Commission
World Growth · October 2010 · For the European Commission
Submission arguing that analytical work on indirect land use change does not support regulation of biofuel consumption, given contradictory global land use datasets, the complexity of rural land use change, and modelling that addresses only commercial agriculture.
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Palm Oil — The Sustainable Oil
World Growth · September 2009
Reviews the accusations levelled at palm oil on deforestation, biodiversity, wildlife and greenhouse emissions, finding them questionable or exaggerated, and argues the crop's role in reducing poverty and raising living standards has been displaced from the debate.
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Collateral Damage
How the bogus campaign against palm oil harms the poor
World Growth · December 2009
Challenges the campaign attributing deforestation and orang-utan habitat loss to oil palm, arguing two-thirds of forest clearance is driven by subsistence need and that palm oil uses a tenth of the land and a third of the energy of alternative oil crops.
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Forestry
Economic contribution studies, industry analysis and responses, chiefly in the Asia-Pacific region.
FSC's Closed Shop
Shutting down forestry in the developing world
World Growth · September 2012
Argues there is no proven link between private forest certification and reduced deforestation, that certification is no substitute for government-implemented sustainable forest management, and that the Forest Stewardship Council's cost barriers and governance flaws limit uptake.
Download PDF (32 pp)
The Economic Contribution of Indonesia's Forest-Based Industries
ITS Global · September 2011
Assesses the contribution of Indonesia's forest-based industries to output, employment and rural livelihoods against a decade of GDP growth averaging 5.5 per cent, a population above 230 million, and continuing dependence on agriculture for household income.
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A Costly Deceit?
The World Bank's unviable strategy on climate change and deforestation
World Growth · May 2011 · Green Papers, Issue IX
Examines why the World Bank committed close to $4 billion to forest carbon programmes between December 2009 and May 2010 while holding commissioned research, from Winrock International, indicating that deforestation emissions had been substantially overestimated.
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Abuse of Sustainability Standards
An attack on free trade, competition and economic growth
World Growth · September 2011
Argues sustainability standards are being used to justify trade barriers, restrict competition and limit consumer choice across timber and paper, vegetable oils, seafood, beef and sugar, with the European Commission and the World Bank as active participants.
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Trees before Poverty
The World Bank's approach to forestry and climate change
World Growth · September 2011
Examines the World Bank's approach to forestry and climate change, its reliance on overstated deforestation emissions figures, and the politics that sustained the strategy after the underlying numbers were questioned.
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The Economic Contribution of the Forestry, Pulp and Paper Industry to the Indonesian Economy
ITS Global · February 2010
Updated edition of the 2008 assessment of the forestry, pulp and paper sector's contribution to the Indonesian economy, with revised population, employment and poverty data and a reworked estimate of the industry's development impact.
Download PDF (48 pp)
Audit of 'How Sinar Mas is Pulping the Planet'
ITS Global · September 2010 · For Asia Pulp & Paper
Independent audit of Greenpeace's July 2010 report on Asia Pulp & Paper, examining its 72 claims, 300 footnotes and supporting references. Finds the central allegation of a concealed land-use expansion unsupported, with two academic reviewers engaged.
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The Economic Benefits of Land-Use in Papua New Guinea
ITS Global · November 2009
Examines land-use economics in Papua New Guinea ahead of the Copenhagen conference, questioning the REDD concept's premise that a global carbon market will emerge to buy forest credits, and disputing estimates of deforestation's contribution to global emissions.
Download PDF (38 pp)
Forestry and the Poor
How forestry reduces poverty
World Growth · August 2009
Argues that clearing forest for more productive use raised living standards in Europe and North America, and that modern sustainable management allows developing countries to achieve the same result while retaining amenity and biodiversity.
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Forestry and Development
Building the foundations for sustainability
World Growth · April 2009
Examines the division over how sustainable forest management should balance economic and environmental outcomes, and the European pressure on tropical forest countries, which hold 47 per cent of world forests, to curtail commercial forestry and change land use.
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Forestry and Biodiversity
A healthy report
World Growth · December 2009
Examines two assumptions underpinning criticism of forestry on biodiversity grounds: that the industry is a major cause of deforestation, and that plantations are sterile monocultures. Finds the attribution of most forest loss to the industry unwarranted.
The New Face of European Environmental Protectionism
Forestry and climate change
World Growth · November 2009
Argues European environmental trade restrictions on food and forestry products protect domestic producers, restrict growth in developing countries, threaten the multilateral trading system and deliver poor environmental outcomes, and makes the case for cooperation over coercion.
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Conversion
The immutable link between forestry and development
World Growth · December 2009
Argues that conversion of forest land to more productive agricultural use is inseparable from economic development, that halting it would contravene obligations under the Framework Convention, and that compensatory aid and carbon farming cannot substitute at the scale required.
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Implementation of a Pilot TLTV and Chain of Custody Standard for Harvested Timber
Using the SGS Timber Legality and Traceability Verification programme to demonstrate legality of timber product exports from PNG to Australia
ITS Global · January 2009 · For Saban Enterprises Limited, Article for ITTO Tropical Forest Update; ITTO Activity PP-A/39-173
Describes an ITTO-sponsored pilot applying the SGS Timber Legality and Traceability Verification programme to Papua New Guinea timber exports to Australia, providing third-party assurance of legality as importing countries' policies on illegal logging evolve.
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The Contribution of the Indonesian Commercial Forestry Industry to Greenhouse Gas Mitigation
ITS Global · August 2008
Argues that international criticism of Indonesian commercial forestry on climate grounds continues an older campaign previously pursued under illegal logging and species conservation banners, and sets out the industry's role in greenhouse gas mitigation against that policy pressure.
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The Economic Contribution of Rimbunan Hijau's Forestry Operations in Papua New Guinea
ITS Global · September 2007 · For Rimbunan Hijau (PNG) Group
Quantifies Rimbunan Hijau's contribution to the Papua New Guinea economy through direct activity, multiplier effects and regional development, with a Gulf Province case study comparing company expenditure on infrastructure and social services against public provision.
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Review of the Social and Economic Benefits of the Gunns Limited Pulp Mill Project
ITS Global · June 2007 · For the Tasmanian Department of Premier and Cabinet
Review of the social and economic assessments underpinning the proposed Gunns pulp mill at Bell Bay, Tasmania. Covers state and regional economic impacts, transport, housing, services, tourism and population effects across both construction and operational phases.
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The World Bank and Forestry in PNG
ITS Global · August 2006 · For Rimbunan Hijau (PNG) Group
Examines the World Bank's role in Papua New Guinea's forestry sector, its relationships with environmental NGOs, and the design of its Forestry and Conservation Project. Considers the effect on donor approaches to the sector and questions the Bank's candour.
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The Economic Importance of the Forestry Industry to Papua New Guinea
ITS Global · July 2006 · For Rimbunan Hijau (PNG) Group
Assesses forestry's contribution to Papua New Guinea's national and provincial economies, including infrastructure investment and flow-on effects, with a Western Province case study. Critiques the Independent Review Team's findings and examines constraints on the sector's potential.
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Effective Approaches to Managing Forests Sustainably and Addressing Illegal Logging in the Region
ITS Global · May 2005
Argues that Australian restrictions on timber imports would be an ineffective response to illegal logging, given Australia's small share of regional producers' exports. Contends that capacity building with exporting countries is the more effective route to sustainable forest management.
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Forest certification
Conformity assessments of national certification schemes against PEFC Council requirements, and analysis of certification as a standards system.
Conformity Assessment of the Thai Forest Certification System (Reassessment) against the PEFC Council Requirements
Oxley-Hegarty · July 2025 · For the PEFC Council
Reassessment of the Thailand Forest Certification System against PEFC Council requirements. Identifies 33 minor non-conformities and no major ones, spanning standard setting procedures, the sustainable forest management standard including trees outside forests, and related requirements.
Conformity Assessment of the Türkiye National Forest Certification Scheme against the PEFC Council Requirements
Oxley-Hegarty · February 2025 · For the PEFC Council
Assessment of the Türkiye National Forest Certification Scheme against PEFC Council requirements, identifying non-conformities in standard setting procedures, including the treatment of risk assessment and the use of permissive rather than mandatory language in the standardising body's proposal requirements.
Conformity Assessment of the Guyana National Forest Certification Scheme against the PEFC Council Requirements
Article Three · January 2024 · For the PEFC Council
Assessment of the Guyana National Forest Certification Scheme against PEFC Council requirements. Identifies minor non-conformities in standard setting procedures, in the publication of final standards, and in the forest management standard, including claims rules for products from uncertified areas.
Conformity Assessment of PEFC Brazil against the PEFC Council Requirements
Article Three · August 2023 · For the PEFC Council
Re-endorsement assessment of PEFC Brazil, formerly CERFLOR, following transfer of scheme responsibility from INMETRO to the Pro-Forest Management Institute and a wholesale revision of the forest management standards. Assesses scheme rules and their application in practice.
Conformity Assessment of CERFOAR against the PEFC Council Requirements
Article Three · March 2023 · For the PEFC Council
Assessment of Argentina's CERFOAR certification system against PEFC Council requirements. Standard setting procedures and process conform. Three minor non-conformities identified in the forest management standard, covering waste disposal prohibitions, documentation of pesticide use, and related operational requirements.
Conformity Assessment of the Indonesian Forest Certification Cooperation (Revision) against the PEFC Council Requirements
Article Three · February 2022 · For the PEFC Council
Assessment of the revised Indonesian Forest Certification Cooperation system against PEFC Council requirements. Documents scheme structure, standard setting and certification procedures, and records an interruption to the assessment while the standardising body corrected an overlooked revision date in its group forest management standard.
Conformity Assessment (Reassessment) of the Sustainable Green Ecosystem Council against the PEFC Council Requirements
Article Three · January 2022 · For the PEFC Council
Reassessment of Japan's Sustainable Green Ecosystem Council certification system against PEFC Council requirements. Finds broad conformity across standard setting, forest management and chain of custody, with minor non-conformities on published review dates and public availability of consultation feedback.
Conformity Assessment of the Korean Forest Certification Council Scheme for Sustainable Forest Management against the PEFC Council Requirements
ITS Global · April 2018 · For the PEFC Council
Assessment of the Korean Forest Certification Council scheme against PEFC Council requirements. Documents the standard's development over six years by the Korea Forest Service and Forest Promotion Institute, comprising seven criteria and 46 indicators.
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Conformity Assessment of the PEFC Italy Scheme for Sustainable Forest Management and Sustainable Plantation Management against the PEFC Council Requirements
ITS Global · March 2017 · For the PEFC Council
Re-endorsement assessment of the PEFC Italy scheme for sustainable forest and plantation management, conducted to inform the PEFC Council's decision under its system of mutual recognition, identifying areas of conformity and non-conformity.
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Forest Certification: Sustainability, Governance and Risk
ITS Global · January 2011
Examines forest certification as a voluntary standards system, comparing the coverage, governance and risk profiles of the two dominant schemes, the Forest Stewardship Council and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification.
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Mixed Species
Assessing FSC's 'mixed source' certification
ITS Global · June 2011
Examines the Forest Stewardship Council's mixed source certification, finding it does not exclude mixed tropical hardwood fibre and that independent fibre testing detected material likely sourced from endangered species in FSC-labelled products.
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Conformity Assessment of the Uruguayan Forest Certification Scheme against the Requirements of the PEFC Council
ITS Global · October 2010 · For the PEFC Council
Evaluation of the Uruguayan Forest Certification Scheme against PEFC Council requirements, drawing on documentary review, public comment and a field visit to identify areas of compliance and non-compliance.
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Evaluation and Assessment of the American Tree Farm System against the Requirements of the PEFC Council
ITS Global · May 2008 · For the PEFC Council
Evaluation of the American Tree Farm System against PEFC Council requirements, covering the scheme's history and structure, its standard setting process and its implementation, with a recommendation to the PEFC Council Board of Directors.
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Evaluation and Assessment of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) Program against the Requirements of the PEFC Council
ITS Global · September 2005 · For the PEFC Council
Evaluation of the American Sustainable Forestry Initiative programme against PEFC Council requirements. Assesses the standard setting process, programme implementation and forest management standards, with a recommendation to the PEFC Council Board of Directors.
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Evaluation and Assessment of the Cerflor Brazilian Forest Certification Scheme against the Requirements of the PEFC Council
ITS Global · June 2005 · For the PEFC Council
Evaluation of Brazil's CERFLOR forest certification scheme against PEFC Council requirements, covering the standard setting process, chain of custody standards and scheme implementation, with a recommendation to the PEFC Council Board of Directors.
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Climate
Land use, deforestation emissions, REDD, and the effect of industrialised country climate policy on developing economies.
Indonesia's Greenhouse Emissions: State of Knowledge
ITS Global · July 2011
Reviews the evidence on Indonesia's greenhouse emissions, showing estimates ranging from 0.4 to 3.01 gigatonnes and demonstrating how country rankings shift with methodology and peatland data sources, undermining claims that Indonesia is among the largest emitters.
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Restricting Growth
The impact of industrialised country climate strategies on the world's poor
World Growth · December 2011
Argues that emissions from deforestation have been overstated, with recent research indicating figures as much as half of original estimates and less than a third for Indonesia, while the economic costs of restricting land use have been understated.
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How REDD Will Impoverish the Developing World and Reduce Biodiversity
An Indonesian case study
World Growth · April 2011
Uses Indonesia as a case study to argue that REDD programmes, funded by around $5 billion in Western pledges, and expanded protected areas will reduce both economic welfare and biodiversity, drawing on Indonesia's experience with national park management.
Download PDF (36 pp)
Grappling with Inordinate Uncertainty
Measuring the carbon footprint of tropical land-use change
World Growth · June 2011 · Foreword by Dr David F. Smith AM, University of Melbourne
Reviews the literature on carbon emissions from tropical land-use change to oil palm, distinguishing planting on long-cleared farmland from recent clearance, and highlights the unreliability of existing quantification and the gaps in knowledge.
Download PDF (39 pp)
A 'REDD+iness' Program for Papua New Guinea
A strategy to promote sustainability and growth
ITS Global · November 2010 · For the PNG Forest Industries Association
Sets out a readiness strategy for Papua New Guinea under REDD+, arguing that population growth of 2.8 per cent a year in a largely subsistence economy is incompatible with restrictions on forest clearance, given existing conservation set-asides.
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Winners All
How forestry can reduce both climate change emissions and poverty: a pro-development program
World Growth · December 2008 · Prepared for UNFCCC COP14, Poznan
Argues that sustainable forest management increases carbon stocks and can be traded into emissions trading schemes, and that the REDD strategy promoted by the World Bank and campaign groups, which focuses only on preserving existing stocks, forgoes that benefit.
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Building a Pro-Development Global Strategy on Climate Change
World Growth · August 2007 · By Alan Oxley, foreword by Mike K. Moore
Argues that the strategy succeeding the Kyoto Protocol after 2012 must be pro-development, since developing countries have insisted since the Framework Convention that climate measures not displace economic development, and sets out how that balance might be struck.
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Mining
Taxation and regulatory settings for mineral development, chiefly Mongolia.
Averting the Resource Curse
Path to Prosperity Project Mongolia
World Growth · April 2008
Examines Mongolia's mining investment climate, where foreign direct investment reached nearly $200 million in 2006 but contributed only four percentage points to growth. Argues world-class deposits in remote locations require international capital that the tax and regulatory regime deters.
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Taxation and Mining in Mongolia
World Growth · December 2008 · World Growth International; World Growth Mongolia
Finds Mongolia's windfall profits tax has raised the effective tax rate on mining to more than twice that of Chile or Botswana, driving private investors away and raising perceived sovereign risk, with consequences for revenue, employment and output.
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A Path Forward for Mining in Mongolia
World Growth Mongolia · November 2008 · World Growth Mongolia Centre for Policy Research
Sets out respective public and private roles in developing Mongolia's mineral wealth, arguing the state should establish secure and transferable property rights while avoiding the deterrent effect of the windfall profits tax and mandatory state equity in strategic deposits.
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CSR
Corporate social responsibility standards in emerging markets and the campaigns that shape them.
Corporate Social Responsibility
How global business is getting it wrong in emerging markets
World Growth · June 2011
Argues that corporate social responsibility strategies developed to satisfy campaign groups in industrialised countries antagonise governments in emerging markets, advance causes of little local interest, and put at risk the high-growth markets those companies increasingly depend on.
Download PDF (28 pp)
Greenmail
CSR and sustainable forestry in emerging markets
World Growth · July 2010 · Business briefing
Business briefing on the campaign against forestry and high-yield agricultural products in emerging markets, the business risk created by NGO-set standards, and the resulting challenge for companies, with a case study on forestry and poverty in Indonesia.
Download PDF (20 pp)
Greenmail (Japanese edition)
新興市場における企業社会責任と持続可能な林業
World Growth · July 2010 · Japanese translation of the July 2010 business briefing
Japanese edition of the July 2010 business briefing on corporate social responsibility and sustainable forestry in emerging markets, covering NGO standards, business risk, and a case study on forestry and poverty in Indonesia.
Download PDF (20 pp)
Development
Aid priorities, economic growth and food security.
The Development Tragedy
How donor aid priorities and land use policies threaten food security
World Growth · August 2012 · Palm Oil Green Development Campaign
Examines donor food security policy ahead of the 2012 London Hunger Summit, arguing that British policy, emblematic of Western donors generally, contains contradictions that leave the causes of food price volatility and restricted access unaddressed.
Download PDF (27 pp)
Back to Basics
Restoring economic growth to the aid agenda
World Growth · September 2009
Argues that bilateral donors have reduced their emphasis on economic growth, and that with private inflows to developing countries projected to fall from around $900 billion to between $150 and $300 billion, aid strategies need revisiting.
Download PDF (22 pp)
Environment
Programme evaluation for Australian environmental funding.
Evaluation of the Bilateral Agreements for the Regional Component of the Natural Heritage Trust of Australia
ITS Global · January 2006 · For the Australian Government
Evaluation of the bilateral agreements between the Australian Government and each state and territory governing the regional component of the Natural Heritage Trust. Assesses their effectiveness for the Trust's Advisory Committee against biodiversity, resource use and capacity building objectives.
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Evaluation of the National Investment Stream of the Natural Heritage Trust of Australia
ITS Global · January 2006 · For the Australian Government
Evaluation of the National Investment Stream of the Natural Heritage Trust, the component funding activities of national scope or Commonwealth jurisdiction. Assesses performance against the Trust's objectives of biodiversity conservation, sustainable resource use, and capacity and institutional change.