DFID's Forestry Research Programme is funding a three-year project to research the role that ethical trade can play in improving the lives of forest dependent people in developing countries. The project asks fundamental questions about whether such trade can deliver appropriate benefits, how effectively current ethical initiatives operate, and what practical steps can be taken to improve performance. The research summarised in this report forms one of three comparative studies that will address the questions of how current ethical trade practitioners operate in the forest products context and whether the trade brings incremental benefits to forest dependent people. It examines ethical trade of brazil nuts in the context of Candela, an alternative trade organisation operating in Peru. Evidence was gathered on the type of financial improvements that Candela brings to brazil nut collectors, the size of these benefits, and how the organisation manages to deliver them. The research also analyses the international part of the ethical brazil nut trading chain and draws conclusions on the appropriateness of the commodity for ethical trade. The basis for the study is a comparison with the conventional brazil nut trade. A separate study conducted by a social development expert examines the impact that ethical trading has had on the brazil nut collectors in Peru
