Access to external finance critically influences farm households’ ability to establish and manage commercial tree plantations in Vietnam, as it does elsewhere. The Vietnamese government has recognised the importance of household tree plantations and, in particular, the benefits of giving households access to external finance. Not only has the government transferred around a quarter of Vietnam’s forestland to households, but it also offers them exceptional access to financial support through targeted programmes and the state-owned banking system.

El objetivo de este documento es evaluar la situación normativa del aprovechamiento de madera en las concesiones castañeras de Madre de Dios desde el año 2004, cuando se publicó la norma con carácter de complementariedad que permitió esta actividad y hasta la zafra concluída para el año 2010. Para este fin se analizaron las cifras oficiales de volúmenes extraídos de madera tanto en concesiones castañeras y en concesiones madereras dentro de las Administraciones Técnicas de Tahuamanu y Tambopata-Manu.

Rapid growth of emerging economies, emerging interest in biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels and recent volatility in commodity prices have led to a marked increase in the pace and scale of foreign and domestic investment in landbased enterprises in the global South. Emerging evidence of the negative social and environmental effects of these large-scale land transfers and growing concern from civil society have placed ‘global land grabs’ firmly on the map of global land use change and public discourse. Yet what are the processes involved in these large-scale land transfers?