Holm Uibrig

Economic Analyses of rubber and tea plantations and rubber-tea intercropping in Hainan, China

This study uses land expectation value (LEV) as a criterion to conduct economic analyses of natural rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) and tea (Camellia sinensis var. assamica) monoculture, and rubber-tea intercropping. We calculated LEV by using the Faustmann model that combines annual revenue flow from latex production with final timber harvest of rubber trees. Production and cost data were collected from Xinwei Farm in Hainan, China. We found that rubber-tea intercropping generated higher LEV than rubber and tea monoculture under current socio-economic circumstances. Sensitivity analysis has been conducted to examine the impacts on land expectation value by interest rate, prices of natural rubber and tea, and labor costs.

Forests and rural development

Introduction.- Paradigms.- The Challenges Facing Forest-Based Rural Development in the Tropics and Subtropics.- Land Management Systems at the Interface Between Forestry and Agriculture.- Organizational Changes in Forest Management.- Creating Rural Employment and Generating Income in Forest-Based Value Chains.- At the Interface of Culture, Development and Forests: Insights from Bolivia and Kenya.- Extension Services for Rural Development.- Payment Schemes for Environmental Services - Challenges and Pitfalls with Respect to Effectiveness, Efficiency and Equity.- Financing Forests for Rural Development.- Land Use Planning for Sustainable Forestry.- Forest Governance and Sustainable Rural Development.- Prospects for Forest-Based Rural Development.

Prospects for Forest-Based Rural Development

This synopsis provides an outlook for the complex issue of tropical forestry and rural development. It is based on the previous chapters, and incorporates historical facts, rural development politics and policies, and management systems and instruments. The mix between factual and instrumental aspects rules out a simple conceptual framework. In this synopsis the co-evolution model presented at the outset is taken up, to represent the complex reality of tropical forestry and rural development (Fig. 13.1). The highly dynamic and action-oriented character of this outlook is rooted in the discussion of paradigm changes, leading to design elements for a prospective tropical forestry and rural development theory.

Land Use Planning for Sustainable Forestry

The planning and overall management of rural land use are widely recognized as being complex and complicated processes. The state and the dynamics of land use derive from both the natural endowment of the area under consideration and related attributes of the human society. Forest land use has not long been a particular focus of land use planning and rural development. However, increasing human populations with growing needs locally and in a global context, the transformation of forests to other land use types such as agriculture and pasture, but also for purposes of settlement, mining, technical infrastructure, etc., have resulted in efforts to forecast the sustainability of land use based on historical development, the current state and potentials. Land use practices producing results other than those expected have led to the development and implementation of various participatory approaches ahead of exclusively technocratic means of planning. Accordingly, contemporary land use planning is characterized by argumentation stemming from a combination of top-down and bottom-up procedures. Forests continue to play a secondary role relative to other rural land uses, especially agriculture and grassland. Nevertheless, a recognition of the multiple production, protection and service functions of the large proportion of forests worldwide increasingly justifies and impels the adoption of innovative concepts such as adaptive strategy development and strategic spatial planning approaches to ensure an appropriate integration of forests and their management in rural development at local, landscape and regional level.

The Challenges Facing Forest-Based Rural Development in the Tropics and Subtropics

In spite of decades of unprecedented exploitation of resources, rural areas in the tropics and subtropics still possess vast human, biological, mineral, land, forest and other natural resources that potentially represent a primary source of human and economic development. However, the benefits produced by past development programs and policies often bypassed rural areas. The apparent failure of societies to develop rural areas to the same extent as their urban and metropolitan centers has largely been attributed to a complex set of factors at the level of the natural and the social sub-system at local, national and global scales. In this chapter the authors attempt to provide a comprehensive review of the manifold dimensions of the rural development challenge in forest areas of tropical and subtropical countries. In so doing, the authors draw heavily on empirical evidence published in the pertinent scientific literature.