Forest certification is intended to be a market-based incentive to promote the sustainability of forest lands and forest management. However, undertaking a certification can be a costly exercise, and the economic benefits may not be immediately clear. The three most important market benefits are potentially market access, improved public image and price premiums. Although forest certification has achieved major progress by enabling certified forest products to penetrate some environmentally sensitive market niches and by maintaining and enhancing the public image of forestry companies, the price premium has proved difficult to realize, especially for commodity products such as pulp and structural lumber. When considering the actual purchasing behaviour of consumers, there is little evidence to verify that the expressed willingness to pay a price premium will materialize in the market place. Considerable uncertainty exists as to why this might be the case, and the presence of too high a premium could drive consumers towards cheaper products derived from unsustainable (or illegal) forestry activities.

In Cameroon, resources such as non-wood forest products are often managed as common pool resources in customary systems, which have been variously influenced by changes in policy, demographics and market opportunities. This research explored the effects of increasing commercialisation on the customary management systems for three commercially important species, Gnetum spp. (Gnetum), Irvingia spp. (bush mango) and Ricinodendron heudelotii (njansang) in two areas differentiated on the basis of level of commercialisation. Findings showed that increased commercialisation was leading to overharvesting of these products, particularly Gnetum. The customary rules of access were also changing as the perception of improved marketing opportunities was leading to restrictions on access to bush mango and Gnetum. The increasing privatisation of access for njansang has removed it from the common pool, which could negatively affect those women, with insecure access to land, who depend on its harvest and sale as a source of livelihood.

Recent economic policies in China demonstrate a growing recognition of the potential of the commercial utilization of Non-timber forest products to contribute to sustainable forest management and improve local livelihoods. However, little attention has been paid to understanding the socio-political contexts or the distributional effects of NTFP commercialization. This commodity chain analysis of the matsutake mushroom market in Yunnan Province, Southwest China, identifies the different actors involved in the trade and mechanisms that shape their access to, and benefits from, the market. This study finds that market regulations meant to promote exports have constrained market development and limited participation at the most lucrative node in the chain to a few powerful actors. Also, while economic activities continue to be structured by local cultural, historical and political forces, the interactions between local and global processes significantly shape distributional equity in the matsutake commodity chain.

Land is of critical importance for provision of wood and nonwood forest products and environmental services. Ownership is a key factor influencing forest land management and protection. Most forests in the world, 86%, are in public ownership which accounts for a commensurate share of forest degradation. U.S. forest land ownership is dominated by private owners, and this has largely worked well for production and for provision of environmental services. International comparisons of forest land ownership and corresponding management outcomes indicate that private forests provide proportionally more market based goods such as wood, and that their environmental performance in terms of forest management plans, forest certification, and compliance with forest regulations appears to be similar to that of public forests. In fact, private lands have increased environmental conformance with regulations and adopted forest certification for many high production lands. Both public and private lands should more closely link tenure rights and conservation and management control. Government ownership and incentives must evolve for both private and public lands to produce forest goods and services more efficiently and equitably.

Although there has been considerable analysis on the effects of trade measures on forest product markets, these have tended to focus on tariffs. There is growing concern about the impact of non-tariff trade measures on the global forest product sector. The objective of this study is to fill a gap and estimate trade and economic impacts of non-tariff barriers and compare them to the impacts of tariffs. Ad-valorem equivalent estimates for a set of well-defined non-tariff trade restrictions are incorporated into a global forest products trade model. Non-tariff barriers are found to be less common than tariffs but have similar or bigger aggregate impacts on trade, production, producer revenues, consumer expenditures and value added as tariffs. There is uncertainty in the estimation of ad-valorem equivalence of non-tariff barriers that serves as a caveat on the results. Impacts of reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers are often different across regions and products. While not free from uncertainty, the results underscore the importance of analysing both types of trade policy and the need for continuing comprehensive trade liberalization.

There is an increasing interest in understanding the role forest products and forest resource management in rural livelihoods and poverty reduction strategies. This study investigates the contribution of forest resources to the livelihoods of rural households under a participatory management arrangement in southern Ethiopia. Data were collected through key informant interviews, group discussion, and household surveys from a total of 350 households. Income data were collected in four separate seasons at intervals of three months. The result indicates that forest products are the most important sources of income contributing to 34% and 53% of household per capita income and per capita cash income, respectively. Forest income also helps 20% of the population to remain above the poverty line. Forest income reduces inequality (Gini coefficient) by 15.5%. In general, the result confirms the importance of forest income in poverty alleviation and as safety nets in times of income crisis.

This article reports on findings from a research project, in more than 30 sites in 10 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, aimed at analyzing cases where changes in formal tenure rights for forest-based communities had recently occurred or were in process. Though by far largest proportion of the world's forests are owned by the state, over a quarter of forests in developing countries are now owned by or assigned to communities. This suggests, at least in some ways, a marked departure from the historic trend towards centralizing. The project, led by the Center for International Forestry Research in coordination with the Rights and Resources Initiative in 2006–2008, sought to identify issues and concerns from the perspective of socially and economically vulnerable groups that were seeking rights reforms. The objectives were to understand reform processes, particularly the extent to which community rights had improved in practice. This article reports on the analysis of three aspects of the reforms: the broad global trends shaping them, challenges in implementation and outcomes for livelihoods and forests.

Pakistan's remaining forests are both fragile and unique. They are also extremely important for the ecological services that they provide to society. Despite the government's ongoing recognition of the need to increase forest cover since 1955, very little substantive progress has been made. Indeed, deforestation levels have been continuing at an alarming rate, making Pakistan one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to losing its forest resources in the next thirty years. This paper highlights the impact of political and government actions on the forest sector in Pakistan. It describes how the rapid rate of deforestation in the past has been linked to government and administrative failures and discusses the possible impact of forest land transfers on forest loss. It then presents the case of the proposed Patriata Reserved Forest development in 2004 as an example of a situation where provincial governments and institutions attempted to usurp established forest policy and legislation to transfer ecologically endangered forestland for a resort development. Finally, the utility of the existing tools of government for protecting Pakistan's remaining forestlands are discussed.

The present forestry guidelines and related legislation in Romania promote the natural forest type and seek a sustained yield in terms of both timber production and other forest functions regardless the ownership and administration. Therefore, forest management could be considered compatible with the conservation requirements of the Natura 2000 network. At present, this network covers roughly 18% of the country area. It was implemented without a thorough field analysis and without a proper stakeholder consultation process. Additionally, all sites were declared protected areas although no compensation system exists for owners. The authors propose that, at least for sites covering large areas and including diverse forms of ownership, the administration is more efficient at the level of existing forest districts than at site level. They also stress that, for an efficient Natura 2000 network and a sustainable forest management, financial compensation schemes should cover all types of ownership currently existing in Romania.