Policymakers in the humid tropics often justify export bans, taxes, marketing regulations and other controls on the timber trade in order to protect natural forests. Their actions are supported by research that shows logging and associated activities to be a prime cause of the loss and degradation of the world’s remaining large and relatively-intact rainforest ecosystems. In the absence of effective mechanisms for policing forest areas earmarked for conservation, restrictions on the tropical timber trade are seen as the next best way to curb illegal logging. While they may prevent some deforestation, these restrictions are nevertheless imperfect instruments. Loggers often evade them, cutting trees and selling timber illegally. Alternatively, wood is simply wasted, left unharvested when trees fall naturally or burned when forest is felled for conversion to plantations or ranches. Worse still, the policy measures aimed at protecting natural forest are also applied to agroforestry systems that are managed sustainably by small-scale farmers
Publication year
2008
Authors
Language
English
Keywords
agroforestry, regulations, smallholders, timber, wood
Geographic
Indonesia
