Experiences from the previous Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)−funded research project on Smallholder Forestry suggest that improving the uptake of forestry particularly by smallholders requires increased financial returns from their tree farms. In order for smallholders to realize attractive financial returns they should have better access to markets of their tree farm products. Philippine smallholder tree farmers are governed by Department of Environment and Natural Resources policies and regulations which require them to register their trees before harvest and transport of tree farm products. Research findings, however, indicate that most smallholder farmers lack an awareness and understanding of the policies on tree registration, harvesting, transport and marketing. It was also found that Community Environment and Natural Resource Officers have varying ways of policy implementation due to the differences in their understanding and interpretation of the tree registration policy. Participants of a workshop conducted as part of the community survey study of Emtage et al. (2004), and those attending a number of policy workshops, suggested the need to improve the flow of information to establish a clear and common understanding of tree registration and associated policies. Researchers in the ACIAR-funded project on Improving Financial Returns of Smallholder Tree Farmers in the Philippines have developed the Primer on Tree Registration, Harvesting, Transport and Marketing in Private Lands to improve awareness and understanding of the policies among the smallholder tree farmers and plantation owners, Department of Environment and Natural Resources personnel and other stakeholders. The development of the Primer followed a participatory process and was done in a well-organized fashion to ensure that the concerns of all stakeholders were taken into consideration. This paper presents the details of the processes involved in the development of the Primer. New and more aggressive methods of dissemination for piloting are also presented to effectively improve the flow of information on tree farming policies among smallholders and other stakeholders. Other schemes of disseminating information that were perceived by the smallholder farmers and other stakeholders to make a difference to their awareness and understanding of the tree farming policies are also discussed. As action research activity, the undertaking also involves monitoring activities to assess what impact the Primer has on smallholders’ attitude towards tree registration in particular, and the promotion of small-scale forestry in general
