In the developing countries most of the rural communities depend on forest resources for their livelihood. The establishment of protected areas and national parks however deprive them of having access to these resources. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, this study assessed the NTFPs collection situation of the fringe communities after the establishment of Kakum National Park, the extent to which the livelihood of the communities has been improved, and how the presence or absence of livelihood improvement strategies has shaped the attitudes and perceptions of the fringe communities toward the national park. The results showed that about 17% of the household leaders were unemployed. Livelihood support strategies such as livelihood alternatives and enhancement, social capital and sociological tourism were found to be absent. Opinion leaders of the communities reported that no member is involved in the management of the park. In spite of restrictions, majority (88.4%) of the household members enter the national park for NTFP collection. Hunting was found to be third highest activity. The households reported that majority of the NTFPs they collect were not processed indicating that their capacities to add value to the resource have not been developed. They believe that value addition to NTFPs could increase their income levels but did not support the theory that it could safeguard the future availability of forest resources and contribute to their sustainability. The respondents believed that once the resources are in abundance they must be exploited to meet their socio-economic needs, suggesting the nexus between illegal entry to conservation area and unsustainable exploitation of forest resources. The paper concludes that when restrictions are placed on access to forest resources and no alternative sources of income are made, illegal entry becomes the norm. The illegal NTFPs collectors would not view the resources as “their own” and would exploit them in an unsustainable way to meet their needs.

Net Present Value and Internal Rate of Return were indicators used in the cost analysis of commercial poplar plantations in Serbia. The study was conducted on four types of sites under plantations of Populus x euramericana cl. I-214 aged 24–42 years. The aim was to examine the financial results of plantations of different ages at different discount rates. For a discount rate r = 12%, all the tested areas had a negative NPV, regardless of age and site quality. At r = 6%, shorter production cycles to up to 28 years of age on better site classes had positive NPV_s (80–580 €ha^-1), while at r = 4% the investments were financially justified in all cases. IRR_s varied in the range 4.32–6.94% at a discount rate of 12%. The best financial results are achieved on the best sites, with the shortest rotation cycles. Determined financial rotation length was 17 years.

The mixed outcomes of seemingly well-intentioned partnerships that try to create mutually beneficial agreements between local communities and private firms remain a puzzle. This study looks for answers to this puzzle by reviewing a large number of empirical studies in a wide variety of contexts. The kinds of local skills and expertise that are important for good timber concession management, how local people and concession managers can construct mutually profitable relationships, the most effective strategies used by communities to defend their claims in conflicts with private firms, and the types of public policies that are supportive of more equitable terms of cooperation in forest concession management are issues that were examined in the review. Institutional arrangements that regulate the relationship between local communities and forest concessionaires, and particularly the distribution of de jure property rights, help explain the mixed results. Less conclusive evidence exists with regards to community perspectives on concession-community relationships. The study concludes by suggesting future directions for research and discusses the implications of the findings for public policy.

The study was conducted to determine the extent of illegal harvesting of timber species in Nyanganje Forest Reserve (NFR). Data on the extent of timber stocks harvested illegally in NFR were collected using both socio-economic and ecological surveys. Linear regression analysis showed that extraction of timber species in NFR mostly occurs at the roadside. The mean annual quantity of wood harvested illegally was estimated to be 6.2 m³ per ha. Although the NFR has high potential of timber species (standing stock of 119 m³ per ha), this is threatened by the high demand for timber species. Illegal harvesting of timber species is likely in NFR because the Government is providing few resources to safeguarding this reserve. Therefore, some arrangement from the Government is immediately needed to rescue this reserve and ensure its sustainability.

This paper analyses the differences between forestland tenure systems in Canada and the US. Evolution of the two systems is primarily explained by variation of scarcity and land productivity. In early colonial times, Canada's economy was tightly linked to the fur trade with Indian people, while New England's economy was based more on agriculture with more intensive land use. In Canada, the focus was on the rights to timber from natural forests due to its abundant natural forests, poor road access and low productivity for farming, whereas in the US, the focus was on not just the forests but also the land as land was valuable for farming. While we emphasize the differences in scarcity in timber and timberland as the main cause of the disparity of the forestland tenure systems between the two countries, some legal and political factors are also explored.

In this study the average consumption and cash incomes of households living in villages adjoining the Lobeke National Park in Southeast of Cameroon were analysed with particular focus on the extent to which households in the region were dependent on forest products and services. Possible reasons for the dependency of households on forests were identified and tested using logistic regression. A total of eight income portfolios were found to be contributing to the household annual incomes in the studied villages. The contribution of forest products to household income and consumption ranged between 0.10 to 0.82 (mean = 0.49 and sd = 0.18). Forest income contributed 44.44% to the total income of all the households surveyed. The annual average forest income per household was US$ 239.3. A major recommendation was that conservation policies need to be overhauled to take into consideration the importance of forest products in the livelihoods of forest-dependent people.

This study identifies causes of forest-related conflicts in the Equatorial rainforest of South-East Cameroon, based on field studies in three villages where industrial logging concessions have been granted. Local access to forests has been severely reduced and customary rights restricted as an effect of the national forest zoning plan. Hence, local livelihoods have been negatively affected. Corruption is moreover rampant. This has resulted in a solid majority among local people expressing negative attitudes toward logging companies and the state. Local inhabitants regard NGOs to have a significant potential to ameliorate their relationship with logging companies, while secured user rights was identified as the most significant avenue to improve their relationship with the state. Securing community rights to land and forest resources — including access and use rights to permanent forests/concession areas — come forward as essential for conflict resolution and ensuing local economic and social development.

Since 1992, the Vietnamese Government has implemented far reaching policies and programs to increase the country's tree cover by promoting plantation forestry. In addition to providing environmental services, these efforts are intended to alleviate rural poverty through sustainable forestry. Towards this goal, more than 4 million ha have been assigned to households and rural cooperatives through forestland reallocation or management contracts. Although the extent of primary forest has continued to decrease, overall tree cover has increased by 47% since 1990, largely due to the spread of tree plantations. Meanwhile, in the last decade, with Vietnam's economic liberalisation policies, the timber processing industry has shifted from State-owned enterprises to private companies. By 2008, the processing sector had expanded into a $3 billion industry, one of Vietnam's top five export sectors and a major source of demand for logs and sawnwood.

In 2010, an assessment in the industrial wood processing center of Binh Dinh province was conducted to gain insights on market opportunities for smallholder produced timber. The assessment revealed a number factors preventing local smallholders from fully capitalising on demand for wood from the processing industry. These included competition between the manufacturing sectors (e.g. furniture, woodchips and pulp industries), which creates an incentive for premature timber harvesting, and a lack of domestic supply of certified timber, resulting in Vietnam's furniture companies importing raw materials. To address the former, better segmentation of the wood production for the different sectors is recommended. The latter might be addressed through more aggressive efforts to certify household-scale timber plantations through simplified schemes such as the Forest Stewardship Council's Small and Low Intensity Managed Forests (SLIMF) certification, pending additional research to better understand the potential costs, benefits and risks of such a strategy.

Smallholders managing their own teak plantations typically lack established marketing strategies and are unaware of the underlying competition. They also have limited experience in using research methods to observe the competitiveness and attractiveness of smallholders' teak in the market. To investigate the lesser-explored smallholders' teak market and identify opportunities to develop marketing strategies, we applied Porter's Five Forces Model, which focuses on the five forces that shape business competition. The study showed that smallholding teak producers compete with a well established, state-owned forest enterprise. Meanwhile, access to markets, market knowledge, financial resources, and tree production and management, all of which bore on product quality, were identified as barriers to entry by smallholders into the teak market. With bargaining power at the supply level, farmers must deal with the overwhelming profit-eroding power of buyers, the intermediaries. Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) and acacia (Acacia auriculiformis) may well be suitable high-quality substitutes for teak, but sengon (Paraserianthes falcataria), which is a fast-growing, high-yielding tree that reaches harvest size in only eight years, may also suffice. Improving market information for smallholders, simplifying timber trade regulations to minimize transaction costs, and developing links between teak producers and teak industries are among the recommendations to initiate effective marketing strategies for smallholders growing teak.

This article analyses the development of international forest law in the period since the 1992 and assesses the prospects for its future success. At the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development it was assumed by some countries that creation of a global forest treaty would lead to sustainable forest management on a global scale. Opposition to the proposed treaty was, however, strong so instead, a non-binding forest instrument was agreed. Since 1992, a variety of laws, institutions, policies and programs have been created but none has significantly reduced deforestation. The creation of a global forest treaty remains on the agenda of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) and will be reconsidered in 2015. This paper considers the arguments for a global forest treaty, analyses the legal and practical difficulties which may emerge, and discusses four other paths forward within the international legal system. These include the addition of protocols to existing treaties, amendment of existing treaties, creation of regional initiatives and continuation of UNFF It argues that the implementation of existing law is limited in several key forest countries by the weak or ineffective rule of law and poor governance. This leads to the conclusion that furtherance of the rule of law and the strengthening of existing national and international institutions, not the creation of new international law, should be the immediate priority of forest law-makers.