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This study surveys a thriving, albeit largely informal, SMFE sector in Malawi. It looks in detail at four promising subsectors: timber, cane furniture, tree fruit juices and woodcarving. This adds to, but does not investigate further, the vast SMFE fuelwood and charcoal trade, Malawi’s third largest industry, which was the subject of a previous report in this series. It describes the challenges of growing pressure on the forest resource, weak capacity in government services, and disorganised small enterprises. But it also highlights some opportunities, simple steps that could make government forest services more SMFE friendly, and ways of organising SMFEs to better meet market demand while sustaining the resource.