PRO-FORMAL: Policy and regulatory options to recognise and better integrate the domestic timber sector in tropical countries

Existing national forest policies in many tropical timber producer countries do not provide an adequate response to the challenges associated with the growth of the domestic timber sector, its impact on forests, its legalisation, and its direct or indirect links to exports. In some cases, these policies are fairly weak in regulating domestic timber markets, in providing incentives for the actors operating in these markets and in removing barriers to include them in a legal framework. In others, where regulations favour large-scale operations oriented to export markets, national policies hurt small-scale forestry operators that are unable to comply with the management and tax regulations in place. We will first conduct surveys in the five selected countries of Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ecuador and Indonesia to characterise the forest sector and its dynamics. We will then develop a common methodology for data collection on the domestic timber markets of each country. Data collection and analysis in the target countries will help define the specific tradeoffs involved in regulating and formalising the domestic timber market, protecting livelihoods, and promoting improved forest management. New empirical data from the selected countries will allow conclusions about the scope of the domestic timber sector, both informal and formal, and the interrelationships among larger-scale formal actors and informal and small-scale ones. Data analysis will help describe who harvests, who processes, who sells and who buys as well as the complexity of supply chains and systems. We will also analyse differences in terms of marketing and financing between domestic and export-oriented timber sectors. The analysis will also assess the magnitude of the people dependent on, and the livelihood options currently sustained by, the domestic sector in the five countries, as well as the potential trade-offs that better regulated domestic sectors could engender on livelihood options. Such new data and analyses are of critical importance to understand the challenge, so that adequate responses can be designed and policy decisions informed.