Smallholder timber production on sloping lands in the Philippines: a systems approach

In the Philippines, timber tree planting on small upland farms has been promoted as away to restore degraded lands and produce scarce tree products for householdconsumption. As natural forests continued to recede and timber demand and priceincreased, farm forestry emerged as a profitable farm enterprise. As a result treeplanting spread all over the country and farm-grown timber trees became the source ofraw materials, income, and employment for farmers and the local and national timberindustry. Farmers’ intensive tree establishment and management practices ensure treesurvival and growth. However, the intimate association of fast-growing timber treesand crops on small farms severely reduces intercrop yields, thus decreasing netreturns and increasing risks. Benefits from tree farming can be further reduced asfarmers’ management strategies to minimize tree-crop competition (e.g., severepruning) adversely affect tree growth and timber quality. This study aims to documentfarmers’ tree growing and management practices, to identify determinants of treeplanting and constraints that limit farmers’ potential to grow timber trees on farms, andto assess the profitability and adoptability of smallholder’s timber production systems.

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