Smallholder Tree Growing in South and Southeast Asia - Smallholder Tree Growing for Rural Development and Environmental Services - page 8

various processes of rural development have facilitated this shift in the forestry sec-
tor as will be outlined below.
Firstly, the rate of success among large-scale reforestation projects has been
less than expected as discussed earlier. In addition, environmental degradation and
social problems associated with large-scale reforestation projects have raised
much debate (Sawyer 1993; Carrere and Lohman 1996; Cannell 1999). For exam-
ple, native longhouse communities in Sarawak resisted the establishment of a
200,000 ha Acacia mangium plantation in a former concession area partly claimed
by about 20,000 mainly Iban people under Native Customary Rights (Barney
2004). The plantation, to be managed in intensive seven-year rotations, was initi-
ated in 1996 as a joint venture between the Sarawak state government and the
Singapore-based Asia Pulp and Paper. Key to the social conflict was the displace-
ment of longhouses and the unconditional resettlement packages, raising also pro-
test among various Sarawakian non-governmental organizations (NGOs). However,
an exclusive emphasis on resistance to forest plantations, as practiced by some
NGO networks, may undermine the fact that there is also widespread smallholder
participation in plantation production; a tendency that is likely to increase in the
future (Barney 2004). In addition, in-depth analysis of some of the previously
adverse environmental assessments of tree plantations with species such as Eucalyptus
proved to be unfounded (e.g., Sayer et al. 2004).
In addition to forestry plantations, smallholders have increasingly been involved
in on-farm tree growing through the establishment of agroforestry systems. However
from the start of its promotion in the 1970s, smallholder tree growing has received
considerably less attention from the (less) developed and scientific worlds, when
compared to large-scale tree planting and reforestation. More recently, with the
expansion of small-scale cultivation in many regions of the world, the awareness is
mounting that lands controlled by smallholders are of increasing importance in
both sustainable food production and safeguarding environmental services, such as
biodiversity conservation, watershed protection and carbon sequestration. They
more and more determine the environmental, economical and ecological value of
the landscape. Whether smallholder tree growing does indeed make a difference,
and if so, to what extent it contributes to sustainable development and environmen-
tal protection and conservation, needs further investigation.
Another reason for increasing interest in smallholder tree growing is related to
the expansion of areas under forest protection. The latter has lead to a ban on log-
ging and restrictive use of natural forest products in countries like Indonesia,
Thailand and the Philippines. Smallholders are therefore in search of alternative
sources of tree products and ways of integrating trees into their farming systems
through on-farm tree growing and forestry plantations. Moreover, it is expected
that, with mounting population and land shortage, the number of farmers with
smallholdings will remain high or may even increase in the near future.
Yet, the implementation of tree-based farming systems still faces controversy
and need further exploration, given for example their contested role in providing
profits to farmers under present conditions of increasingly competitive world mar-
kets. Whereas a small number of tree crops (e.g., coffee, cacao, tea) played a critical
role in setting off economic growth during past three decades in Southeast Asia, at