Tablillas, small-dimension lumber, are sweeping the timber markets in Peru from informal trade in rural villages to major housing suppliers in Lima. This expanding market for lumber from fast-growing timber is reshaping the productive landscape in the Amazon region by inspiring a system of timber production quite distinct ecologically, socially, and economically from the dominant practice of selective logging. This paper introduces the species and production systems that feed this emerging and expanding market, and explores the social networks that facilitate the processing and marketing of tablillas, presenting an economic model that describes the system from the point of view of the rural producer. Finally, the paper discusses regulatory changes that would allow rural farmers to participate more directly, legally and sustainably in the tablilla boom.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226024134.001.0001Altmetric score:
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Publication year
2014
Authors
Language
English
Keywords
rural economics, selection, logging, timbers
Geographic
Peru
