Forest and tree product value chains

Abstract

This special issue is dedicated to forest and tree product value chains. Forest and tree products enter people’s lives as goods and services, fulfilling basic subsistence needs for food, shelter, energy and health, amongst others. They may be traded near and far from their place of origin. They may be used for everyday activities, as exotic luxury items, or hold great cultural or symbolic value for worship. The activities and processes arising when such products enter new environments can have local as well as far-reaching ecological, social and economic consequences. Money is made and lost. Livelihoods and ecosystems are impacted, both positively and negatively. Landscapes change. Organisations and institutions arise and fall around products, and cultures are both influenced and shaped by the value chains that arise from the movement of products harvested from forests and farms, transported ? processed and transformed into other products ? marketed, sold, consumed and discarded