Loan financing of smallholder treefarming in Ilocos, a comment

This paper is a comment on a previous explanation for an unsuccessful treefarming project in the Philippines. The earlier explanation did not inquire deeply into the project and its problems, and simply stated that "a development model that is successful in one area may not be successful somewhere else."

Further investigation revealed some problems in the Ilocos project. The responsible people underestimated the effectiveness of locally-owned woodlots in meeting local demand, and underestimated the woodlots' potential for meeting future demand increases. In this case, lack of local input was doubly ignored, both by the project leaders and by those who were attempting to explain the project's failure. (author)