This research work was commissioned to the Foundation for People and Community Development Inc (FPCD) Papua New Guinea (PNG), by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) under the Norway Partnership Programme (NPP) “Forests for Sustainable Livelihoods”. The paper dwells on trade-related instruments influencing trade in non-wood forest products (NWFP). Two NWFP were selected from Papua New Guinea as case studies to analyze how trade-related instruments influence their commercialization and contributions to rural livelihoods and poverty alleviation. These two NWFP are Eaglewood and the Sandalwood. The criteria for selecting these products include: high socio-economic importance, high domestic/international trade, threatening of sustainable production by poorly controlled harvesting associated with international trade and existing level of national and international intervention. Eaglewood and Sandalwood are two of the emerging commercialized NWFP in Papua New Guinea with not so well documented production and trade. However, such commercialization and the regulations that govern them have been identified to cause major impacts (positive and negative) on the sustainability of production as well as on the benefits that accrue to stakeholders. One reason suggests that there have been no effective mechanisms put in place to ensure sustainable production and equitable trade due to the lack of adequate data to clearly show the possibility of a win-win situation in the light of equity and sustainability for both the traders, local producing communities and resource conservation.

Type of Case
Printed publication (book, sourcebook, journal article…)

Publisher
FAO

Region
Asia Pacific

Biome
Tropical

Forest Type
All forest types (natural and planted)

Primary Designated Function
Production