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Minor Timber Products, Major Challenges?

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Authors: Sietze van Dijk (eds.)

Suriname - 2010

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With approximately 90 % of Suriname's total land area covered in forest (14.8 million ha.), the forestry sector plays a large, potential, role for national development and poverty reduction. This report assesses the opportunities for sustainable production of so-called minor timber products (MTPs). MTPs are timber based by-products from the forest. Bean sticks, tomato sticks, crow legs, fencing poles, firewood and charcoal are examples of MTPs which are used locally in agriculture, construction work, and traditional cremation. MTP production could contribute to the national economy via state forest revenues and simultaneously play a role in poverty reduction in the hinterlands for instance through community-based entrepreneurship. Nonetheless, data on local MTP production which back up and provide more insight in these claims are scare and, if present, often ambiguous.

Over the past decade MTPs contributed close to SRD 15,000 annually to the direct state forest revenues in Suriname. According to the statistics of the Foundation for Forest Management and Production Control (SBB) this is about 0.5 % of the total timber taxation. The potential of MTPs as an income generator from forests is considered to be much higher, both for the state but also for the actors in the MTP product chain. This document reports on the research into the potentials of MTPs as an income generator from forests in Suriname.

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