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SUMMARY While gender issues are becoming increasingly integrated in international environment and development policies, the simplistic manner in which they are treated holds scant promise for real change. In the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) program in Burkina Faso, women are targeted in projects promoting non-timber forest product commercialisation aimed to incentivise forest conservation. Such policies are often based on essentialist assumptions about what men and women do, ignoring that social relations of inequality need to be understood in context. Drawing on intersectional theory this study analyses REDD+ documents, and data about resource use in two villages in Burkina Faso, showing how the participatory approach in Burkina's REDD+ program is unlikely to encourage currently marginalised voices to be heard in existing forest management organisations. Rather, the lack of acknowledgement of intersecting relations of inequality leads to crucial aspects of NTFP res...

SUMMARY Non-timber forest product (NTFP) commercialisation can have both detrimental and positive effects on the livelihoods of indigenous peoples yet there is a paucity of empirical studies from which to draw conclusions, especially when economic activities are linked to traditional use and knowledge. Based on research conducted in arid areas of north-western Namibia with indigenous Himba communities, this paper assesses the social and economic effects of commercialising the traditional perfume plant Commiphora wildii, used by Himba as part of a daily personal care ritual. Results show improved access to food, education and health care as a result of the income gained and increased benefits to women, but also illustrate the complexities and inter-related nature of many components and the difficulties of drawing generalised conclusions. These results concur with literature showing that NTFP commercialisation is an important strategy to diversify livelihoods and thus decrease vulnerability to climate varia...

SUMMARY Two major barriers to non-timber forest product (NTFP) commercialization are a thin market structure and ensuring long-term supply. There is a growing literature suggesting potential solutions to address these two issues. The majority of these solutions, however, marginalize the role of state institutions in favour of other institutional arrangements. This study used the example of Tricholoma matsutake (S. Ito and S. Imai) Singer commercialisation in South Korea to show that state institutions can play a leading role in addressing the thin market structure and ensuring long-term supply. Specifically, the Korea Forest Service (KFS) and National Forestry Cooperatives Federation (NFCF) addressed the thin market structure through the provision of a supply channel, grading system, price-setting mechanism and guidelines for transportation. In order to help ensure long-term supply, the KFS and NFCF support and undertake forest management activities. This case study shows that state institutions should be...

SUMMARY This paper reviews the existing forest policies in Nepal mainly focussing on the fiscal policy of Community Forestry (CF), and discusses some of the existing and potential issues on the implication of fiscal policy. The review shows that Nepalese CF has some unclear and inconsistent legal provisions related to fiscal policy. The semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with individuals from governmental and non-governmental organizations, Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs) from Parbat, Baglung and Dolakha districts of Nepal, and forest product traders from these districts demonstrate that there are a number of issues and challenges related to fiscal policy that have affected the promotion of sustainable and market-oriented management of forest resources. These issues and challenges have a direct impact on CFUGs to optimally benefit from their forest resources. As several stakeholders (including non-governmental organizations) are involved in implementation of CF program and yet do ...

SUMMARY Forest policies in Nepal encourage community forest users to commercialise non-timber forest products for income generation. This study sought to understand the ability of forest users to increase their household income benefit through commercial non-timber forest product management by conducting a multiple linear regression analysis. Furthermore it compares the income generation potential of traditional to enterprise-oriented approaches. Results indicate that, in the enterprise-oriented approach, low wealth category households derived income benefits only when they had equitable access to forests and a reliable market. The findings also show that, under the traditional approach, income benefits are the highest for rich households and the least for female-headed poor households. In contrast, the enterprise-oriented approach strengthens the role of disadvantaged poor households. The study concludes that commercialisation of non-timber forest products does not automatically result in equitable incom...

SUMMARY Forest certification is intended to be a market-based incentive to promote the sustainability of forest lands and forest management. However, undertaking a certification can be a costly exercise, and the economic benefits may not be immediately clear. The three most important market benefits are potentially market access, improved public image and price premiums. Although forest certification has achieved major progress by enabling certified forest products to penetrate some environmentally sensitive market niches and by maintaining and enhancing the public image of forestry companies, the price premium has proved difficult to realize, especially for commodity products such as pulp and structural lumber. When considering the actual purchasing behaviour of consumers, there is little evidence to verify that the expressed willingness to pay a price premium will materialize in the market place. Considerable uncertainty exists as to why this might be the case, and the presence of too high a premium cou...

Although there has been considerable analysis on the effects of trade measures on forest product markets, these have tended to focus on tariffs. There is growing concern about the impact of non-tariff trade measures on the global forest product sector. The objective of this study is to fill a gap and estimate trade and economic impacts of non-tariff barriers and compare them to the impacts of tariffs. Ad-valorem equivalent estimates for a set of well-defined non-tariff trade restrictions are incorporated into a global forest products trade model. Nontariff barriers are found to be less common than tariffs but have similar or bigger aggregate impacts on trade, production, producer revenues, consumer expenditures and value added as tariffs. There is uncertainty in the estimation of ad-valorem equivalence of non-tariff barriers that serves as a caveat on the results. Impacts of reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers are often different across regions and products. While not free from uncertainty, the results underscore the importance of analysing both types of trade policy and the need for continuing comprehensive trade liberalization.

The trade relationship between small-scale growers and processing companies often plays an important role in determining the nature and extent of benefi ts derived from commercial forestry, and the distribution of these benefi ts. Many strategies are used by individual small-scale growers, village communities, companies and government agencies to form partnerships to undertake commercial forestry - including outgrower schemes, land leasing by companies, and using intermediary brokers between small-scale growers and processors. This article reports on the key fi ndings of a three-year research project that explored different business partnerships used in commercial forestry in Australia and Indonesia, and identifi ed the critical factors for benefi cial and enduring partnerships. The key lessons from this research are that, for many small-scale growers to form successful partnerships with other investors, they need: increased knowledge of the operations and components of commercial forestry; improved access to competitive markets; increased knowledge of the dynamics of forest product markets; improved capacity of local farmer forest groups to share experiences and information, and build their knowledge of commercial forestry; and reduced administrative and fi nancial burden imposed by government on small-scale forestry operations

SUMMARY This paper investigates the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) outflows from two major forest product importing countries: the U.S. and Japan. Exchange rate, per capita income, cost of capital, and cost of labour in host countries have significant impacts on the FDI outflows from these two countries. A complementary relationship is found between forest products exports and FDI outflows for the forest product importing countries. Market-seeking as well as resource-seeking motives for the FDI outflows from these countries are evident.

There is a new and increasing emphasis on poverty alleviation and livelihoods improvement in forestry, representing both a challenge and an opportunity. This paper briefly reviews the evolution of the ‘livelihoods’ issue, analyzes the concept of ‘poverty alleviation’ and discusses means by which forestry can contribute to livelihoods improvement. It focuses on the contributions of forest products and markets, questioning the typical timber vs non-timber dichotomy. The role and the potential of a forest product is determined more by the socio-economic and environmental context of the production, processing and marketing system than by the physical characteristics of the product itself. This is important as new opportunities arise through increased control of resources by local people and new markets for forest products. Helping achieve poverty alleviation through forestry requires protecting poverty mitigation functions, enhancing income and employment options, and taking advantage of opportunities to build and strengthen local institutions through policies and project-level interventions.

SUMMARY Community Forestry (CF) initiatives took place in Myanmar after a series of forest policy reforms and decentralisation arrangements during the 1990s. The Forest Department has been instrumental in the introduction of CF in degraded areas with primary objectives of afforestation and meeting the local consumption of forest products. Despite the policy reforms and initiatives by the Forest Department, the Myanmar CF program suffers from serious setbacks due to a lack of social skills and professional attitude among local forest staff, the uncertainty of land tenure policy and lack of a community empowerment approach. A local empowerment approach supplemented with transparent and accountable land tenure and a viable common property regime is recommended to overcome the growing constraints. The empowerment approach should emphasise promoting a local voice and representation within the local socio-economic context, developing local networks towards federalised institution, and honouring local decisions.

SUMMARY Over 70 % of China’s timber product imports are supplied by countries in the Asia Pacific region, and China is the dominant forest product market for many of these countries. Unsustainable harvesting practices, illegal logging, and negative impacts on community livelihoods plague many of these supplying countries. The countries may be divided into those still harvesting and exporting timber from natural forests on a large scale and those which have gone past their highest levels of natural forest timber harvesting and are now more aggressively pursuing plantation development and processing. Apart from Russia, China’s top Asia Pacific timber suppliers could at best maintain current supply, with natural forest resources being depleted in less than 20 years. Resource limits also constrain expansion and/or long-term continuation of processed product export to China. Greater attention and action on the part of governments, market leaders, and international organizations is needed to address negative impacts, shifting supply to a sustainable, legal, and equitable basis and to determine from where China’s long-term supply will come.

SUMMARY This study analyzes trends in China's forest product imports between 1997 and 2003 by both product segment and ports of entry. The same information is provided for each of the main Asia-Pacific countries supplying China. A high growth was experienced in China's forest product imports between 1997 and 2003 in both timber products and pulp and paper. Logs, lumber, and pulp are the most rapidly growing import segments as China moves towards handling more of the processing of forest products itself. Forest-rich countries in the Asia-Pacific region are playing an increasingly important role in supplying China's expanding demand. Ocean ports in the Shanghai-Jiangsu and South China regions have maintained their leading role in the forest product trade. These have been joined more recently, and in some cases surpassed, by inland ports in Northeast China, which have been catapulted to leading roles by the booming border trade with Russia.