Ethical finance in the forest sector â a review of international experiences

Ethical finance is management of financial sources in a responsible way that maximise financial returns together with social and environmental goods; or at least does not create negative environmental and social impact. In recent years, there is a growing perception among investment professionals that environmental, social and governance issues can affect the performance of investment portfolios. As a part of CSR tools, ethical finance has gradually become a leading issue in business, thus many ethical finance initiatives were developed, as well as various ethical principles and criteria. Although the finance in forest sector has a direct social and especially environmental impact; the ethical finance in forest sector is still not well defined. This thesis is an exploratory study aimed to define ethical finance in forest sector by assessing the investment strategies of various public and private forest investors. The study applies both qualitative and quantitative methods. The findings outline current situation of ethical finance in the global forest sector, the profile of forest investors engaged in ethical finance, and the perceptions of various direct and indirect stakeholders involved in finance of forest sector.