Forestry Development Project

closed

The objectives of the Forestry Development Project will be to contribute to efficient and sustainable growth of forest plantations and timber processing industries, to alleviate rural poverty, and to develop a strategy and consensus for addressing the desertification and soil erosion problems in Patagonia. To achieve these objectives, the project will: 1) create a supportive institutional, policy, legal regulatory framework; 2) generate and disseminate information which will enable all actors, both public and private, to contribute to narrowing the gap between actual and potential levels of output from forest plantations and timber processing industries; 3) target directly with technical assistance and grants, groups of small farmers in which the incidence of poverty is high, agroforestry can play a central role in improving farming practices, and, as a consequence, alleviate rural poverty and better protect important resources of nearby native forests; and 4) complete a comprehensive study on the Patagonia Region, focusing on the development of an appropriate role of the state to help prevent soil erosion and destruction of natural habitat.