Beschreibung
Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) can be an important source of income for
rural inhabitants of Laos. One such NTFP, which has been promoted by the government of Laos, is the paper mulberry tree (Broussonetia papyrifera (L) Vent). This study was performed to understand the factors influencing the commercialisation of paper mulberry bark in Oudomxay province (Northern Laos) and to investigate the potential of the paper mulberry tree as a source of steady income.
Autorenportrait
Maria Miguel Ribeiro works for the Ecologic Institute evaluating EU-rural development programmes. She worked for the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and lived in the Northern part of Laos and Thailand to carry out a participatory supply-chain analysis for paper mulberry bark. She was a visiting researcher at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture based in Colombia where she dealt with business-development services and settled an organic food distribution-scheme. Maria Miguel supported in 2003 the European Commission in Brussels with a desktop study about the EU-standards of organic wine and completed a post-graduate course in Management at Vrije University in Brussels (Belgium). In 2001, she graduated in Agrarian Engineering at the University of Porto (Portugal) with a MSc thesis in Integrated Protection Management from the University of Wageningen (Netherlands). Her main professional interests are: development of sustainable supply chains, sustainable commercialisation of forest and food products. She speaks fluently Portuguese, Spanish and English and basic German and French.
