A presentation by Paolo Cerutti of CIFOR. The presentation was made at a conference on "The biggest 'private sector': what place for the informal economy in green and inclusive growth?" on 25 February 2016. The event was hosted by IIED and the Green Economy Coalition, WIEGO, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the OECD's Sahel and West Africa Club. More details: http://bit.ly/1T8MGqJ

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

12. Who are they?

13. Who they are NOT

14. Challenges and opportunities
2

15. The ‘invisible’ production

16. Opportunities (for smallholders)

17. 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

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

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

20. GRACIAS
OBRIGADO
TERIMA KASIH
MERCI
谢谢
THANK YOU