Small and Medium Forestry Enterprise Publication Series
IIED and its partners recognised over eight years ago that most international attention in forestry was being given to improving the conditions for large scale, or micro-scale forestry, and much less to the ‘messy middle’ - where huge numbers of small and medium forest enterprises (SMFEs) operate – often informally. With few external sources of support available, self organisation into associations is one of the only optionsfor SMFEs to foster pro-poor growth – fighting scale disadvantages and political marginalisation to capture the benefits of globalisation.
Working with partners in Brazil, China, Ghana, Guyana, India, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, and Uganda IIED started to address the lack of information about SMFEs. A series of ground breaking books and reports based on this work chart attempts to raise the profile of SMFEs, identify their opportunities and constraints and develop programmes to support them.
Supporting small forest enterprises: A cross-sectoral review of best practice is one of the overview reports for the series. It reviews the growing consensus on best practice in small enterprise support, both within and outside the forest sector. It describes how a framework known as ‘market system development’ unites attempts to: strengthen enterprise associations, facilitate better provision of financial and business development services, and improve the business environment. It concludes with specific recommendations for support to SMFEs.
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You can browse the full small and medium forest enterprises series. There are in particular ten country studies which map current structures and relationships in the forestry SME sector, six country papers exploring the roles and potential for associations of SMFEs and a number of individual titles exploring issues such as charcoal and fair trade timber amongst others.
Forest Connect: sustainable enterprise at the forest frontier
IIED co-manages the international alliance Forest Connect with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN under the oversight of a multi-institutional steering committee. The alliance aims to reduce poverty by securing commercial forest rights for small forest enterprises, enhancing their profitability and supporting responsible forest management.
Forest Connect members actively link sustainable small forest enterprises to each other, and to markets, service providers and policy processes such as National Forest Programmes. The alliance is made up of partners in Burkina Faso, Chile, China, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, India, Laos, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal and Uganda and has a network of supporters in 60 countries linked by online social networking site forestconnect.ning.com.
International year of forests main page
Previous focus: Reports and CD Rom on policy that works for forests and people.