A CUT FOR THE POOR

Proceedings of the International Conference on
Managing Forests for Poverty Reduction:
Capturing Opportunities in Forest Harvesting and
Wood Processing for the Benefit of the Poor



Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
3-6 October 2006


Edited by
Robert Oberndorf, Patrick Dust, Sango Mahanty, Kenneth Burslem, Regan Suzuki

RAP PUBLICATION 2007/09

Regional Community Forestry Training Center
for Asia and the Pacific (RECOFTC)

SNV (Netherlands Development Organisation)

and

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
Bangkok, 2007




Download Report ( in PDF format)


Part I (415 KB) Part II (254 KB) Part III (414 KB)
Part IV (618 KB) Part V (604 KB) Part VI (522 KB)
Part VII (441 KB) Part VIII (590 KB)

The designation and presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Regional Community Forestry Training Center for Asia and the Pacific (RECOFTC) or SNV (Netherlands Development Organisation) concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers and boundaries.

All rights reserved. Reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product for educational or other non-commercial purposes are authorized without any prior written permission from the copyright holders provided the source is fully acknowledged. Reproduction of material in this information product for sale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without written permission of the copyright holders. Applications for such permission should be addressed to Patrick Durst, Senior Forestry Officer, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Maliwan Mansion, 39 Phra Atit Road, Bangkok 10200, Thailand (Patrick.Durst@fao.org) or Dr Yam Malla, Executive Director, RECOFTC, Kasetsart University, PO Box 1111, Bangkok 10930, Thailand (oyam@ku.ac.th).
Citation: Oberndorf, R., P. Durst, S. Mahanty, K. Burslem, R. Suzuki, 2007. A Cut for the Poor. Proceedings of the International Conference on Managing Forests for Poverty Reduction: Capturing Opportunities in Forest Harvesting and Wood Processing for the Benefit of the Poor. Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam 3-6 October 2006, FAO RAP publication number 2007/09 and RECOFTC Report No. 19., FAO and RECOFTC, Bangkok.

© FAO, RECOFTC and SNV 2007
ISBN 978-974-7946-97-0
Cover design and layout by Somchai Singsa
Contacts:
FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
39 Phra Atit Road,
Bangkok 10200, Thailand
Tel.: +66 (0) 2 -697 4000
Fax: +66 (0)2 -697 4445
Email: Patrick.Durst@fao.org

Regional Community Forestry Training Center
for Asia and the Pacific (RECOFTC)
PO Box 1111 Kasetsart University
Bangkok 10903, Thailand
Tel: +66 (0)2 940 5700
Fax: +66 (0)2 561 4880
Email: info@recoftc.org

SNV (Netherlands Development Organisation)
6th Floor, Building B, La Thanh Hotel
218 Doi Can, Ba Dinh
Hanoi, Viet Nam
Tel: +84 (0)4 846 3971
Fax: +84 (0)4 846 3794
Website: www.snvworld.org

Abstract

For the past 150 years, commercial timber harvesting in Asia has been the domain of governments and private companies. When valuable timber was at stake local people were typically ignored; if they were involved at all it was usually as wage labourers. To address the challenge of capturing opportunities in forest harvesting and wood processing for the benefit of the poor, FAO and a broad range of partner institutions collaborated in convening this international conference – attended by 150 participants from 31 countries – from 3 to 6 October 2006 in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. The conference specifically aimed to draw out recent experiences on pro-poor forest harvesting and processing, and to deveop strategies for further enhancing the effective involvement of the poor in these activities. Five themes were highlighted: policies and legislation, economic aspects, forest management modalities and institutional issues, technical aspects and market access. The emerging themes were brought together into a declaration that targets key areas for attention by policy-makers, the private sector, practitioners and communities. This publication provides the proceedings of the workshop including papers on each of the conference themes, as well as the conference declaration.