Eucalypt plantations and contract farming for eucalypts have expanded and are now occurring on a large scale despite concerns about their social and environmental impacts. Our analysis shows that Thai policies and land tenure context have been the principal drivers of the adoption of eucalypt tree growing by Thai smallholders. Thai policies and land tenure system are responsible for the current key role played by smallholders in pulp production. Contract eucalypt farming has become critical for the major pulp companies in Thailand to secure the supply of the raw material. Companies use contract farming to promote eucalypts among smallholders who have not farmed them before and secure their supply in a context of strong competition among buyers. None of the impacts of contract eucalypt farming on the environment and on livelihoods in general are well understood yet, and the paper argues that, to inform appropriate policy development, there is a need to explain how contract tree farming impacts livelihoods.

The period between 1978 and 1997 saw the slow introduction of a series of market reforms that would gradually redefine the organisation of the national economy. This was accompanied by reforms that addressed the problems of the forestry sector, both in the collective (privately owned) forests in the Southeast, and in the state-owned forests in the Northeast. In the more densely inhabited Southeast, the government distributed forestland to households, which were now allowed to invest and obtain incomes from the sale of forest products, while being responsible for their conservation. In the more sparsely inhabited Northeast, the government undertook financial reforms to attempt to address the indebtedness and mismanagement of the state-owned forest enterprises and state linchang. These reforms were accompanied with the slow introduction of a price of timber that would be market-determined, but were gradual and partial, the government maintaining strict controls in particular over the amount of timber harvested.

As sustainable forest management is threatened by climate change, adaptation measures may be needed to maintain the productive capacity of tropical forests. Yet the extent to which foresters across the tropics implement adaptation actions in anticipation to climate change impacts remains largely unexplored. In this paper, an assessment of the perceptions of climate risks and the implementation of adaptation actions by forest managers and decision makers dealing with natural and planted tropical forests destined for production purposes is presented. An electronic questionnaire was disseminated globally during 2009, and 152 responses were received from Africa, the Americas, and Asia and the Pacific. Respondents perceived that natural and planted forests are at risk from being affected by climate change. However, they seemed ambivalent when asked if investing in adaptation was currently justified. The results of this survey provide initial insights into how climate considerations are being anticipated in tropical forest management and planning yet further examination at the national and local levels is warranted on how foresters, including those from the tropics, perceive climate change risks and handle current uncertainties in order to take action. The fact that climate change ranked below other threats to forests such as commercial agriculture and unplanned logging nevertheless suggests that long-term forest planning and management is not perceived by respondents as viable given other major drivers of forest loss and degradation.

The paper assesses the size of 19 lumber markets in Ghana based on monitoring of vehicles carrying lumber to the markets. The paper suggests an annual supply of approximately 1 million m³ of lumber to the 19 markets. 80% is illegal chainsaw lumber. The sales are predominantly for domestic consumption, but a share goes for export to neighbouring countries. Considering markets and sales not covered by the study and allowing for inter-market exchanges, the paper suggests that the annual sales for domestic consumption and overland export may be in the order of 1.4 million m³. Added formal export sales of 0.5 million m³, total annual wood sales approaches 1.9 million m³ which corresponds to approximately 6 million m³ raw wood equivalent. This is six times the annual allowable cut. The paper confirms that around-the-clock market monitoring of wood-transporting vehicles is a reliable and feasible method for estimating the size of domestic market, and a method that could find further applications. The large informal sector beg questions as to the effectiveness of the current measures under the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) initiative in addressing illegal logging in Ghana, and the paper suggests a need for a deeper policy reform process.

Non-timber forest products' (NTFP) market potential to achieve livelihood development and poverty reduction objectives is often constrained by socioeconomic factors. This paper explores NTFP market constraints from village households' perspective and examines how different socioeconomic factors may influence those constraints. This case study focused on Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh. Field data were collected through household questionnaire survey and group discussions. Results suggest that CHT's NTFP market systems suffer from poor transportation facilities, communication systems, financial capital or credit access, and market information and linkages. NTFP market knowledge and information among households is deficient and limited. NTFP market knowledge is significantly influenced by various socioeconomic factors such as household member's education, sex, household's income and ethnicity, distance to market and road access.

Rural development interventions and conservation of resources in forested regions can be better informed with improved understanding of natural product trading and associated livelihood dynamics that operate mostly in informal economic settings. This study examined the income generating potential of six commercially traded forest products, i.e. Mahua flower (Madhuca latifolia), Lac (Kerria lacca), Bidi (processed leaf of Diospyros melanoxylon), oil seeds (Madhuca latifolia, Buchanania lanzan), Sal leaf (Shorea robusta) and Tendu leaf (Diospyros melanoxylon) in a dry deciduous forest region of India, and their significance in household economies. The rural poor were found to have diverse livelihood strategies where NTFP trading contributes on average 20% of cash income. The financial benefit accruing to households in NTFP commercialization are not uniform, and were impacted by entrepreneurship ability and value addition rather than family resources and period of trading engagement. Households trading in Bidi rolling alone could make as much as 60% of total household cash income that indicates the importance of designing policy to support marketing of NTFPs tailored to each value chain.

Forests are not empty. There are various rights and interest in forests as well as the people who live in and around forests. If the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation plus (REDD ) mechanism is to work unilaterally by state and overlook the role of various actors, then it is likely that REDD will fail. From our stakeholder analysis and political mapping in Jambi, a priority province for REDD implementation in Indonesia, we show that REDD actors with knowledge, power and leadership, can support or reject REDD . Specifically, we discuss the implementation capacity and new directions in policy. The analysis also provides indications as to the readiness of Jambi to implement REDD , who wins and loses in adopting REDD and intervention scenarios to make REDD work. The methods used in this study are general and could be implemented elsewhere in Indonesia or abroad.

The forests of SE Cameroon lie within the Sangha tri-national landscape (TNS), a priority area for biodiversity conservation under the Congo Basin Forest Partnership. A monitoring program showed minimal changes in conservation and local livelihoods indicators from 2006 to 2008. Following the global financial crisis in late 2008 global demand for timber decreased and this led to suspension of logging activities and lay-offs of staff by logging companies; both biodiversity and livelihood indicators deteriorated. The unemployed workers lost their incomes, experienced declining living standards and reverted to poaching and slash and burn agriculture. Pygmies were no longer able to obtain employment in Bantu agricultural plots, sell forest products to logging company employees or sell bushmeat to passing logging trucks. These global economic forces had greater impact on livelihoods and the environment than local interventions by conservation organizations. Livelihood indicators improved in 2010 and 2011 when the economy picked-up but those for environmental values did not recover as rapidly.

The management of Asia's forests affects diverse stakeholders and interests, inevitably resulting in conflict. This study focuses on conflicts between local communities and outsiders: the underlying causes, conflict management approaches, and eventual outcomes. Field data was collected through interviews and focus group discussions in seven community-outsider conflict cases across five countries. While many direct conflict triggers were observed, at least three underlying and interrelated factors enabled conflict: contested statutory and customary tenure, exclusionary conservation and economic development policies, and poor coordination between land use planning agencies. The range of observed conflict management techniques (negotiation, mediation, coercion, avoidance) reflected varying power relationships and political contexts. The techniques' success in all cases was relatively low due to the complexity of addressing tenure and exclusion issues. The results underline the need to involve local people in the design of the evolving REDD mechanism, as well as to ensure their rights and benefits.

Plantation forests are being established on more marginal, harsh sites to accommodate expansion of agriculture. Because of this, tree breeders and silviculturists are interested in improving drought hardiness of trees. Breeding approaches to improve drought hardiness includes the assessment of trees as dead or alive in trials after severe droughts followed by the selection of the best surviving phenotypes for the establishment of seed orchards or land races. Physiologists estimate water utilization in trees in terms of water use efficiency (WUE). It is a function of biomass per unit of evapotranspiration and is calculated on a leaf or wood scale in clonal plots and stands. The gene complexes that control drought hardiness and WUE are probably different. It one respect, traditional breeding might have a limited impact on changing WUE since it will be difficult to alter rate of evapotranspiration through selection. In another respect, one could argue that selecting trees for high productivity is indirectly selecting for high WUE in some environments. Alternative approaches such as assessing heavy isotopes of carbon and oxygen in leaf tissue are being used by some scientists as a surrogate measure of water use in crops and trees. This paper presents the general findings from catchment studies on water uptake in pines and eucalypts and discusses how tree breeders might use results to further the development of drought hardy varieties grown in seasonally dry environments.