Farmer Tree Planting Barriers to Sustainable Forest Management - Smallholder Tree Growing for Rural Development and Environmental Services - page 421

Box 20.5 (continued)

covered by Imperata cylindrica grasslands of low use, perpetuated by fire. In
North Lampung farmers are keenly interested in planting trees on their farm,
to make a transition to either labour-intensive rubber, oil palm or fruit tree
stands, or to relatively extensive timber-based production systems (depending
on the household level labour resources). In East Kalimantan, research by
Murniati (2002) showed that technically a transition to tree-based production
is feasible, but the 'opportunity costs of labour' are too high. Villagers can
still easily earn income in legal and illegal logging, or make new clearings in
logged 'production forest' lands. By reference to Fig. 20.1 we can conclude
that this landscape has not degraded sufficiently to start the rehabilitation
process. Where the local market is still 'flooded' by timber derived from natu-
ral forest, the prospects for farmer-grown timber are poor.
Murniati (2002)

20.5 Bottleneck 4: Overregulation of Market Access

Many national policies that are intended to conserve and protect natural resources
discourage the cultivation - and thus conservation - of indigenous species by
restricting their utilization or trade, as reported in various chapters of this topic
(e.g., Schuren and Snelder, Chapter 3, this volume; Manurung et al., Chapter 4, this
volume; Masipiqueña et al., Chapter 7, this volume; Tolentino, Chapter 15, this
volume). Selective deregulation of trade in agroforestry timber species is an attrac-
tive policy option (Tomich and Lewis 2001a; Box 20.6) that can stimulate equitable
economic growth while protecting the environment.
Partly in response to market regulation, industrial timber plantation schemes,
especially those linked to a pulp and paper processing plant, often develop 'out-
grower' schemes, that lead to a vertical integration of production and processing,
providing credit for the initial investment, linked to an obligation to sell to the fac-
tory. An overview (Mayers and Vermeulen 2002) of the experience with company-
community forestry partnerships, shows that farmers appear to be best off where the

Box 20.6 Deregulating agroforestry timber to fight poverty and protect the
environment
Tomich and Lewis (2001a) stated in their ASB (Alternatives to Slash and
Burn) Policy brief:
“Policymakers in the humid tropics often justify export bans, taxes, marketing
regulations and other controls on the timber trade in order to protect natural

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