Timber regulation and value chain in community-based timber enterprise and smallholder forestry in the Philippines

Abstract

Forest tenure reform has no doubt attained significant gains in promoting social justice andequity in the forest sector, through legal recognition of the communities' property rights over forestlands in many developing countries. This includes the right to harvest and market trees that thecommunities planted. Along these lines, the Philippines' community-based forest management(CBFM) and smallholder forestry have the potential to meet the country's wood demand andcontribute to its poverty alleviation goal. Realities on the ground, however, make this lofty aspirationseems too far-fetched. Formal and informal barriers along the timber value chain restrict the growthand obstruct opportunities for community-based timber enterprises (CBTEs) and smallholder forestry.Using the case of CBFM and smallholder forestry in the Visayas and Mindanao Islands in thePhilippines, respectively, this paper examines the hurdles posed by regulations and informal practices,such as restrictive policies and increased transaction costs, through a segment analysis of the timbervalue chain. It argues that failure to address these barriers would lead to the decline of CBTEs andsmallholder enterprises, thus undermining the merits of the forest tenure reform.