The report compiles case studies from developed and developing countries in order to capture good practice examples and conditions for successful forest producer organizations.
Factors in success include: government support, security of rights, an appropriate legal and economic enabling environment, and organizational attributes of transparency, inclusiveness, and the provision of demand driven services to members.
4 October 2012: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), along with AgriCord, Farmers Fighting Poverty, and the Forest and Farm Facility have released a report on what makes a forest producer organization successful. “Strength in Numbers: Effective Forest Producer Organizations” compiles case studies on developing organizational strength, creating networks, lobbying and policy-making, and developing business opportunities.
The case studies from throughout the world address issues such as forest use rights and ownership, financing and marketing for forest products, forest conservation, national-level action and representation and innovative forest-based livelihoods.
Overall, the report highlights the importance of forest producer organizations in organizing and supporting smallholders. However, the report points out that despite the potential of such organizations to improve access to domestic and international markets and access financing such as for carbon sequestration, forest producer organizations are not as prevalent or as easy to establish as similar organizations in the agriculture sector.
Among the identified factors in success are government support, security of rights, and an appropriate legal and economic enabling environment. Furthermore, successful organizations share common attributes of transparency, inclusiveness, and the provision of demand driven services to members. [Publication: Strength in Numbers: Effective Forest Producer Organizations]