Future Challenge: A Paradigm Shift in the Forestry Sector - Smallholder Tree Growing for Rural Development and Environmental Services - page 451

shrinking and there are global trends to reserve areas of natural forests for conserva-
tion purposes. Forest plantations are an effective and efficient means of producing
forest products. These systems must compete with other landuse options to meet
economic, social and environmental concerns. It is increasingly important that
besides providing economic returns to their investors, forest industry operations
should also provide opportunities for adjacent communities to enhance their liveli-
hoods. Equitable corporate-smallholder partnerships can address these issues.
Corporate partnerships that establish agreements for industry to purchase wood
produced by other entities (smaller corporations, groups or individual) are now well
established and growing rapidly. Some of these partnerships are large and focus
primarily on biomass production; others are small and concerned with meeting
multiple objectives. Equitable corporate-smallholder partnerships function on the
basis of empowering smallholders or communities in negotiation and management
processes and provide economic returns based on the invested equity. The small-
holders and corporations are business partners. Partnerships are based on sound
financial and business principles, but with indicators for equitable social and envi-
ronmental criteria (FAO 2003b). Based on negotiation and agreement, the form of
the partnership may vary, with the roles, responsibilities, and returns for each part-
ner varying accordingly. Smallholders could serve solely as landowners providing
their land to the corporation, or they could be responsible for establishing and man-
aging tree crops under regimes negotiated with the corporation. Through a series of
field projects, an international workshop, and subsequent synthesis FAO, CIFOR
and other partners have developed a set of guidelines that enable and support the
development of viable equitable corporate-smallholder partnerships . The guide-
lines enable stakeholders to address, in a substantive and transparent manner, nego-
tiations towards economic, financial, social, and environmental sustainability.
Policy issues are also addressed. A framework is provided to facilitate joint action
learning between smaller landowners, companies, research and extension agencies,
non-government organizations (NGOs), and other stakeholders that leads to greater
equity in negotiation, and as a consequence, greater opportunities for social and
ecological sustainability. Further field testing of the guidelines under a broader
range of conditions is required and being conducted. Some corporate partners have
expressed interest in having the guidelines/framework recognized as an interna-
tional accreditation scheme, after further testing and development (FAO 2003b).
21.7 EnvironmentalServices
While smallholder tree-based systems are typically less diverse than native forest,
they may act as a catalyst for recovery of degraded habitats into naturally regenerat-
ing forest with higher biodiversity conservation value (provided hunting is banned
and native species are added to the stands; van Weerd and Snelder, Chapter 16, this
volume) or contain a much greater number of plant and animal species than most
large-scale forest plantations; the latter is particularly true for the so-called