Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Box 20.6
(continued)
forests. … In the absence of effective mechanisms for policing forest areas ear-
marked for conservation, restrictions on the tropical timber trade are seen as the
next best way to curb illegal logging. While they may prevent some deforesta-
tion, these restrictions are nevertheless imperfect instruments. Loggers often
can evade them, cutting trees and selling timber illegally. Where the value of the
timber is high enough, civil service employees are underpaid and public control
imperfect, the regulations may simply add to the 'transaction costs'. Alternatively,
wood is simply wasted, left unharvested when trees fall naturally or burned
when forest is felled for conversion to plantations or ranches. Worse still, the
policy measures aimed at protecting natural forest also are applied to agrofor-
estry systems that are managed sustainably by small-scale farmers. The unin-
tended result of treating all timber alike-regardless of its origin in forests or on
farms-is that smallholders who plant and tend trees are unfairly penalised. They
are effectively denied the opportunity to produce timber, a product that could
provide them with a much-needed source of income.”
“The ASB team in Indonesia identified three kinds of barrier to trade in agro-
forestry timber.
First are
export taxes and quotas:
intended to promote domestic wood
processing, these drive down the domestic price of timber and hence, in the
case of agroforestry species, reduce the incomes of smallholders. Second are
royalties,
which in theory are applicable only to products from natural forests
but in practice are applied to agroforestry products as well because of confu-
sion about the products' origin. Third are
complex bureaucratic procedures
that smallholders and local traders must follow before they can harvest or
market timber and other agroforestry products. Similar barriers to trade are at
work in many other countries in the humid tropics. As a result, farmers are
discouraged from planting trees.”
credit requirements for tree planting and tending are evaluated on financial viability
criteria and de-coupled from the obligation to sell to a specific processor. Getting the
dynamics of decision-making efficient, equitable, and sustainable in 'community-
forestry partnerships' is not easy but examples where it has been achieved exist.
20.6
Bottleneck 5: Lack of Systematic Validation and Rewards
for Environmental Services
Trees in a landscape, across the whole spectrum from natural forest to intensively
managed plantations, can have positive environmental effects or 'provide environ-
mental services'. Within this context, the determination of quality and price of
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