Over-Regulated and Under-Marketed: Smallholders and the Wood Economy in Isabela, The Philippines - Smallholder Tree Growing for Rural Development and Environmental Services - page 153

Chapter 7
Over-Regulated and Under-Marketed:
Smallholders and the Wood Economy
in Isabela, The Philippines
A.B. Masipiqueña 1,2 *, M.D. Masipiqueña 2 , and W.T. de Groot 3
Abstract This study explores the relationships between smallholder wood
economy, logging of the natural forest and regulatory policies that pertain to these.
Major data come from interviews of informants and 42 treegrowing smallholders
in the uplands of Isabela province. Three sub-markets appear to operate separately:
one in tree-based fruit, one in fuelwood/charcoal and one in timber produced by
the exotic Gmelina arborea tree. The latter market is of special interest because of
its potential importance for the region and because it illustrates a case of outspoken
negative interaction between markets and policies. The farmers are overburdened
by regulations designed originally to protect the natural forest that is present in the
same region. More is at stake than a simple illustration of a well-known dilemma
however, since gmelina is well distinguishable from the natural forest species and
technical difficulties cannot explain the present imbalance between the underde-
veloped legal smallholder market and the well-organized trade in illegal timber,
occurring under the wings of the same regulatory agency. The paper discusses the
options for a fundamental policy rectification which would lay a basis for a free and
fair gmelina timber market that would make wood procurement of the region more
sustainable and equitable.
Keywords Forest regulation, Philippines, smallholder forestry, uplands, wood
market