1.
Domestic tropical timber markets: informal,
illegal and unsustainable?
www.cifor.org/pro-formal

2.
Domestic tropical timber markets:
informal, illegal and unsustainable?
Paolo Omar Cerutti and Xiaoxue Weng
The biggest ‘private sector’: what place for the informal economy in green and inclusive growth?
This presentation has been produced with the financial assistance of the
European Union, the UKAID-funded KnowFOR (Forestry Knowledge) program
and the CGIAR research program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA)
What are we talking about?
1
2 Challenges (and opportunities)

3.
Who are they?
1

4.
Who are they?

5.
Who they are NOT

6.
Challenges and opportunities
2

7.
The ‘invisible’ production

8.
Opportunities (for smallholders)

9.
Why can’t they have a permit?
 Simple, cheap, decentralised (and seek convergence
between legal and legitimate), but based on
knowledge of the resource
Country Available permits Current situation
Cameroon Timber exploitation permit Suspended 1999-2006; Volumes not adapted;
Prohibitively expensive
Gabon Discretionary permit Suspended
Congo Special permit Suspended in parts of the country; Not attributed
in others
DRC Artisanal Exploitation
Permit
Suspended in parts of the country; Delivered for
wrong objectives; Incomplete regulation
CAR Artisanal Exploitation
Permit
No implementing regulation
Ghana Chainsaw milling Suspended since 1998
Liberia Chainsaw milling / PUPs ‘Considered illegal’ / Suspended

10.
 ‘The biggest challenge is to overcome the inability of
governments to stimulate legal trade…’
[Costs to chainsaw millers]
Opportunities (for state officials)

11.
Examples of real situations today
Mr Sulthon Mohammad Amin, Jepara
small-scale furniture association, Indonesia
Mr Gustav Adu, Kumasi Wood Cluster
Association, Ghana

12.
GRACIAS
OBRIGADO
TERIMA KASIH
MERCI
谢谢
THANK YOU