Forest business incubation

Macqueen, D.

Forest business incubation

Towards sustainable forest and farm producer organisation (FFPO) businesses that ensure climate resilient landscapes

Year of publication 2018

Place of publication London, UK ;

Pages 308

Author Macqueen, D.

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Book (stand-alone)

ISBN 978-92-5-130394-8

Full item page

Synopsis (short abstract) Forest business incubation is a support process that accelerates the successful development of sustainable businesses in forest landscapes. There is much to develop. The aggregate gross annual value from smallholder producers within forest landscapes may be as much as US$1.3 trillion. Forest business incubation should be a key mechanism to implement the Paris Agreement on climate and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It can strengthen economic inclusion of forest and farm producer organisation (FFPO) businesses, increase rural incomes to reduce poverty, diversify those incomes to improve climate resilience, and incentivise forest restoration and sustainable management to mitigate climate change. It can also help improve product availability for established businesses and customers, pool lower-risk investment opportunities for financiers, and help inform policymakers on how best to deliver a win-win-win for the economy, society and the environment. It is that important! Business incubation practice generally has expanded rapidly in recent years. Since the first recorded business incubator was founded in 1959, establishment has risen sharply to more than 7,000 today – primarily in urban centres. They are variably financed through client fees, other business income, public and private grants, and loans. Over time the concept has evolved from primarily one of shared space (first generation) to shared space and mentoring (second generation) to shared space, mentoring and networking (third generation). Business incubators respond to needs that especially occur in newer business such as the lack of premises, facilities, market information, technological knowledge, business-management experience, procedures, finance and legitimacy. Remote forest landscapes present challenges for business incubation. Beyond exacerbating basic business support needs, such landscapes offer low densities of educated entrepreneurs, high logistical costs, scarce infrastructure to differentiate products, and few capable business mentors. These challenges may explain the limited penetration of business incubation thinking into forest landscapes. Forest landscapes also require a different type of service delivery model, because shared space is not often practical, requiring much more attention to on-site client visits, virtual services and field exchanges. The content of this book seeks to show how such challenges can be overcome. Chapter 1 begins by defining and introducing ‘business incubation’ and explaining why forest business incubation might be so important. It also specifies why forest business incubation is so challengingly different from models of urban business incubation. In the subsequent Chapters 2–12, detailed case studies are presented of attempts to deliver business incubation services in forest landscapes. Each case study introduces the incubator and its context, describes its institutional design, details the services it offers, outlines how the incubator-client engagement process is managed, comments on how impact is measured, and concludes with some thoughts and tips on best practice.

Language English

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