Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
change alone, without complementary change in the attitude of member of forestry
organizations and organizational culture, failed to provide the desired results.
Similar conclusions may apply to the smallholder tree-growing constraints in the
case studies referred to in this topic. Policy and management prescriptions for sus-
tainable forest management should address the institutional and organizational
aspects and the external setting in an integrative manner. Hence, a clear challenge
lies in the development of supportive institutions and organizations together with a
fundamental policy rectification that can lay a basis for a free and fair tree product
market making smallholder tree-growing systems more sustainable and equitable.
21.9
Lessons from the Philippines and Implications
for Other Asian Countries
Several lessons emerge from the papers presented in this volume. First, the
Philippine experience has shown that smallholder tree farmers in developing Asian
countries are capable of producing large quantities of timber and they can effi-
ciently supply local, national and international markets (Bertomeu, Chapter 8, this
volume). There is a caveat to this however. Government agencies and NGOs who
promote tree farming must be careful not to oversell its financial benefits.
Experience from other countries stress that appropriate technical support most also
be provided (Roshetko et al. 2007a; Manurung, Chapter 4, this volume). Farmers
may feel short-changed when the expected financial windfall does not happen.
This may lead to disenchantment with tree farming and could make it harder to
convince farmers to go into it in the future. Another important lesson is that market
forces need to be taken into account in promoting tree farming and the kind of
species to plant. There is a tendency to focus only on a few species because of a
number of reasons (fast growth, readily available planting materials, high survival
rate, high demand at the time of planting). This could result to oversupply driving
the prices down.
Second, bioeconomic analysis showed that tree-based land use systems have
significantly higher financial profitability and environmental benefits than pure
cash crops (Predo and Francisco, Chapter 14, this volume; Snelder et al. 2007).
However, the risk of tree farming appears to be higher as reflected in the wider
variation of economic returns which could prove to be a significant barrier to
small farmers who are typically risk-averse. There is therefore a need to find
ways to mitigate the risk. One way of doing this is to diversify income sources
from tree farms. New opportunities such as payments for carbon sequestration
should be explored.
Third, while most tree farms rely on exotic species, there is a rising interest in
the use of indigenous species for tree farming (Tolentino, Chapter 15, this volume).
The current interest in biodiversity conservation provides additional incentives for
planting indigenous species. However, significant constraints remain such as the
supply of quality germplasm, lack of information of cultural management, and
Search WWH ::
Custom Search