Farmer Tree Planting Barriers to Sustainable Forest Management - Smallholder Tree Growing for Rural Development and Environmental Services - page 419

Box 20.4 (continued)

commercial sources on another island because of the high transaction costs
and unreliable timber supply encountered when dealing with many individual
smallholders (Mangaoang, personal communication 2004). The selection or
existence of the right marketing channel is an important issue for smallhold-
ers. After initial reliance on fast growing exotics, smallholder farmers in many
areas of the Philippines are now interested in cultivating high-value indigenous
species (including, timbers, fruit, etc.) to meet market demand. Constraints that
inhibit this process are a lack of germplasm, knowledge regarding propagation
and management, slow growth rates and policy disincentives/ambiguities (LSU
2002; Carandang et al. 2006).

20.4 Bottleneck 3: Producing Quality Products Tailored

to Markets

The marketing of planted forest and tree products provides a potential alternative for
poor upland farmers seeking their way out of the poverty trap through new livelihood
opportunities. In this context, Snelder (Chapter 3, this volume) and Manurung et al.
(Chapter 4, this volume) discuss the need for transforming traditional subsistence tree
farming systems, in the Philippines and Indonesia respectively, into sustainable, semi-
commercial enterprises that yield products to meet both home and market demand.
Whereas such transformations are theoretically feasible (and in fact on-going sponta-
neously, yet at a slow rate, driven by economic incentives; Schuren and Snelder,
Chapter 3, this volume), farmers face various limitations in practice such as the
absence of clear marketing channels for tree products accessible to all and the supply
of high quality products that meet market specifications (Chapter 4, this volume).
Likewise, smallholder rubber production has been discussed as an economically
rewarding alternative for shifting cultivators in Northern Laos (Chapter 5, this vol-
ume).Yet, the adoption of such an alternative is not risk free: for example in the lat-
ter study reference is made to threats associated with the rubber production and
emerging constraints of labour and land (e.g., putting remaining forests at risk) as
well as, the high dependence on the China market (and need for continued access
in the future!).
In the case of timber production systems, smallholders too face various market
constraints. They usually start by planting short-rotation species to meet household
and local market needs. As more farmers begin producing timber, supply meets or
exceeds demand and prices decline. At this point farmers can: (i) stop producing
timber, (ii) continue producing timber, hoping the price decline is temporary (e.g.,
Bertomeu, Chapter 8, this volume), and/or (iii) diversify into long-rotation,
premium-quality timbers. The dynamics of tree product supply, market demand,
and marketing channels at the smallholder level are still insufficiently understood
by farmers and researchers alike.