Project assistance completion report (PACR) : tree crop production project (596-0117)

As a result of the project, Central America now has basic, reliable silvicultural and socioeconomic information on 14 multipurpose tree species (MPTS), which, moreover, have been accepted in many communities. Spurred by yields in pilot plots, thousands of small farmers have begun cultivating MPTS, and many have begun processing and marketing tree products. Also, several industries have established large plantations -- primarily of Gmelina, teak, pine, and Acacia magnium -- which can create employment, restore degraded soils, provide new sources of income, and stimulate investment in additional plantations. Central American technicians are now using standardized silvicultural and socioeconomic research methods, facilitating a collaboration which has led to the development of the tropics" first MPTS database (called MIRA). The project trained many professionals (e.g., university faculty, forestry agents) in aspects of MPTS, and published a wide range of documents. The project has also made foresters more conscious of the importance of genetic quality in seeds and, though difficult to quantify, has inculcated the importance of MPTS among decisionmakers (resulting in legislation promoting MPTS cultivation), farmers, and technicians. Findings concerning the achievement of purpose-level objectives were as follows. (1) The establishment of sustainable programs in national forestry services was hampered by severe host country budget crunches; as a result, the project gradually moved to include among its collaborating institutions about 25 private development organizations, cooperatives, and others. (2) Forest services in all project countries now have programs to encourage TC production; to a lesser but significant extent, ministries of agriculture and livestock have incorporated TCs in some of their extension programs. Even more encouraging are the many NGO projects that promote TCs and use technical information generated by the project. Perhaps most significantly, the project successfully demonstrated that trees can be good cash crops -- one of the pillars of the project from the beginning. (3) TCs are now widely covered in regular CATIE graduate courses, including its M.S. program. However, several of the courses are taught by staff of the follow-on RENARM project, and continuity after that is uncertain. Outside of CATIE, most progress has been made in including TC subjects in forestry schools, with less progress in influencing strictly agricultural or livestock educational centers, which turn out far more students than the forestry schools. Lessons learned include the following. (1) This project, its predecessor, and the follow-on are evidence that changes in the natural resources area require very long time frames. (2) The project confirmed the validity of the regional network approach and the value of country coordinators in managing widely dispersed regional projects. (3) Diversification of collaborating institutions beyond the national forest services was an excellent strategy. (4) The project was successful in shifting an increasing percentage of costs to the countries, and CATIE greatly improved its capacity to get collaborators to cover part of the costs of joint operations. Mechanisms to encourage cost sharing should be built into projects from the beginning.