Forests, markets and the poor

Forests provide important economic resource for the rural and urban poor, providing everything from fuelwood and timber, cooking oils and bushmeat to agricultural inputs and medicinal products. They are also the source of globally-valued products and services.

Public involvement in forest management has important governance dimensions. It also has major implications for the integration of poor rural producers into the national and international economy. This has potential equity benefits, but also harbours many risks.

Our Programme aims to increase understanding of the livelihood values of forests, and to identify opportunities for the rural poor to obtain greater benefits from the commercial use of forest products. Key areas of involvement include:

• Landscape-level analysis and planning as a means of meeting both biodiversity and rural livelihoods objectives;
• Community involvement in timber transformation and downstream processing;
• Commercialisation of non-timber forest products;
• Bushmeat as a trade and wildlife management issue;
• Domestication of indigenous trees;
• On-farm tree conservation;
• Establishment of an electronic resource on rural development forestry.