Can Smallholder Tree Farmers Help Revive the Timber Industry in Deforested Tropical Countries? A Case Study from Southern Philippines - Smallholder Tree Growing for Rural Development and Environmental Services - page 170

in the province of Misamis Oriental in northern Mindanao. Then, it shows the
importance of farm-grown trees to sustain the regional wood industry and outlines
timber producers' concerns about the future of the industry. By providing evidence
of the contribution of farm-grown trees to the wood industry, I aim to highlight that
trees planted on small farms, far from being anecdotal, has the potential to be a
viable and reliable supply for the wood industry.

8.2 Materials and Methods

The study was conducted among smallholder farmers in Claveria, Misamis
Oriental, and wood processing plants located in Cagayan de Oro City and its neigh-
bouring municipalities. Cagayan de Oro is the capital city of Misamis Oriental, one
of the four provinces of Region 10 in northern Mindanao. 4 Although the forestry
sector output in the region has been declining in recent years due to depletion of the
resource and the reduction in legal Timber License Agreements (TLA) (Louis
Berger International 1999), the forest- and wood-based industry is the second most
important industry sector after the processed foods and beverages (Provincial
Capitol 1997). According to the Cagayan de Oro - Iligan Corridor Master Plan, in
1998 the Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry sector was an important contributor to
the Corridor's economy, accounting for a combined share of PhP 3.3 billion or
18 percent of the Gross Service Area Product (GSAP) of the two provinces of
Misamis Oriental and Misamis Occidental. Consequently, the establishment of
industrial crops, such as forest trees, rattan and rubber, is one of the economic sec-
tors proposed for development (Louis Berger International 1999). The Department
of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) reported that in 1996 there were,
in Region 10, six sawmills, five re-sawmills, three veneer and plywood plants and
135 mini-sawmills. Wood sources to these industries are TLAs from eastern and
southern Mindanao, planted trees from Region X and adjacent regions, and
imported timber from USA, Malaysia, UK and Singapore (DENR 1996b).
In the year 2000, 17 farmers who harvested trees were interviewed and their
plantations surveyed. From these, 14 are commercial tree farmers as they sold their
trees to middleman or sawmills, whereas the other three used their timber for house
construction. Only the data from commercial tree farmers was included in the cal-
culations reported below. In addition, 16 owners of mini-sawmills and three manag-
ers of large-scale wood industries of Misamis Oriental were interviewed. The
survey technique consisted of structured and semi-structured questionnaires with
major topics of discussion concerning timber supply and demand, processing and
production, uses of farm-grown timber, marketing system, constraints to the industry

4 Region X of northern and central Mindanao is composed of the provinces of Misamis Oriental,
Misamis Occidental, Bukidnon and Camiguin.