One potential method for reducing tropical forest destruction is the creation of environmentally-sustainable plantations that can supply wood and paper pulp products and so reduce demand for timber from virgin forests. Whether plantations meet this objective depends in part on how well they perform in planting trees and bringing them to maturity. This study from Indonesia has investigated the factors that affect the efficiency of plantation development efforts. The study finds that medium- and large-scale plantations linked with paper pulp schemes had the best performance. It argues that this has a number of important policy implications, including the need to provide smaller plantations with the kind of services and connections their larger competitors enjoy by virtue of their size.

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