This book provides an overview of the complex challenges and opportunities related to forest-based rural development in the tropics and subtropics. Applying a socio-ecological perspective, the book traces the changing paradigms of forestry in rural development throughout history, summarizes the major aspects of the rural development challenge in forest areas, and documents innovative approaches in fields both theoretically and based on practical case studies. It brings together scholars and practitioners dealing with the topics from various theoretical and practical angles. Calling for an approach that carefully balances market forces with government intervention, the book shows that forests in rural areas have the potential to provide a solid foundation for a green global economy.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Institute of International Forestry and Forest Products of the Dresden University of Technology introduce a chapter on the potential contribution that forest products can make to rural development as they move from production to end use through different stages. Two relevant analytical approaches are introduced, namely value chain and market analysis for the design of development interventions, and social accounting matrices (SAM) as a tool to help understand the employment and income dimensions of forest product value chains and to place them in the wider context of the rural economy. The application of a SAM analysis is demonstrated in the Amazon region of Brazil, followed by an examination of two key groups of actors in many of these value chains: rural collectors and middlemen. Some of the key factors are then reviewed for the cases of non-timber forest products value chains in the drylands of Sudan and rattan in central Vietnam. The chapter concludes with lessons for the use of value chain development approaches to create jobs in the forestry sector.