There is a new and increasing emphasis on poverty alleviation and livelihoods improvement in forestry, representing both a challenge and an opportunity. This paper briefly reviews the evolution of the ‘livelihoods’ issue, analyses the concept of ‘poverty alleviation’ and discusses means...

This Keynote Address gives a high-level overview of the issues of social and economic development facing the region. Markets have played a significant role in advancing economic and social development in developing Asia, in terms of structural transformation as economies move from agrarian and...

Research and development efforts to strengthen farmers’ linkage with markets often focus on the systematic assessment of market chains, formulation of pro-poor policy recommendations, and the introduction of macrolevel enabling mechanisms. Meanwhile there is growing recognition of the critical...