Farmer Tree Planting Barriers to Sustainable Forest Management

Abstract

Agroforestry provides productive and protective forest functions valued by societies as sustainable forest management. Yet, trees planted in agroforestry systems are excluded in formal definitions and statistics and overlooked in legal and institutional frameworks for sustainable forest management. Likewise, smallholder farmers frequently face barriers when planting or re-planting trees on farms. We examine six issues that hinder a regreening revolution based on farmer tree planting, as discussed in various other book chapters. First, issues of terminology for forests, plantations, and reforestation are linked to land tenure and land-use restrictions. Second, access to high-quality planting material remains a challenge, especially at the farmer level. Third, management skill and information often constrain production for lucrative markets. Fourth, overregulation often restricts market access for farmer grown tree products, partly due to rules intended to curb illegal logging from natural forests or government plantations. Fifth, there is a lack of reward mechanisms for environmental services provided by agroforestry. Sixth, there is a lack of supportive legal and institutional frameworks for smallholder tree growing and agroforestry in general. Current relationships between agroforestry and plantation forestry are perceived as complementary, neutral or competitive, depending on the ability of (inter)national policy frameworks to provide a level playing field for the provision to society at large of productive and protective forest functions. In conditions where plantations operate with substantial government subsidies, in contrast to non-existent or minimal subsidies for agroforestry, farmers’ potential to produce wood and provide other forest benefits and ecological services is placed at a disadvantage, to the detriment of society at large.