Future challenge: a paradigm shift in the forestry sector

Abstract

This chapter re-visits the facts and figures of previous chapters, augmenting the discussion with other relevant literature. It reviews trends in regional deforestation, human population growth, and demands for forest (tree) products; and provides an overview of common tree-based landuse and management systems and their potential contribution to expand the regional forest base and generate forest products and services. Emphasis is placed on the contribution of smallholder treebased (agroforestry) systems, given their additional function of supporting rural livelihoods of the potential of smallholder agroforestry systems to contribute to sustainable forest management and rural livelihoods are identified and discussed. Enabling conditions, institutional and policy support, and market oriented strategies are all discussed as means to strengthen the development and productivity of smallholder agroforestry systems. Discussions on those topics are well supported with citations and lessons learned emphasizing the experience from the Philippines. The main message of the chapter is twofold: (1) a paradigm shift in the forest sector is required to recognize the contribution and importance of smallholder systems to achieve sustainable forest management objectives; and (2) there is a need to adopt more holistic and sustainable strategies to support and strengthen institutions and smallholder system development, including linkages with the market