Small, but many, is big: a review of issues in assessing the collective scale of small and locally-controlled forest-linked investment

Issue paper
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16615IIED.pdf
Language:
English
Published: March 2016
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ISBN: 9781784313210
Product code:16615IIED

Small and locally-controlled forest-linked producers are crucial to development and environmental protection. Patchy and anecdotal evidence suggests that the aggregate scale of local production of goods and services from forests - on farms and by small enterprises and producer organisations - is huge. For example, one estimate puts the number of individual forest-linked producers, small scale forest and farm producer organisations, and small enterprises at 1 billion globally. But their numbers have not been properly assessed and neither has their full potential for local development outcomes, forest conservation, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and returns on investment. This paper reviews some of the issues in assessing the scale and exploring the scope of small and locally-controlled forest-linked production and investment internationally. It lays out a plan for a fuller assessment and proposes how the results could help generate higher levels of commitment to measurable improvements in policy, organization, business practice, capacity and practical initiative that generate acceptable returns from investment with local people in the driving seat.

Cite this publication

Mayers, J., Buckley, L. and Macqueen, D. (2016). Small, but many, is big: a review of issues in assessing the collective scale of small and locally-controlled forest-linked investment. IIED, London.
Available at https://www.iied.org/16615iied