Mushrooms traditionally collected from forests and now more cultivated have recently become the products of the fifth-largest agricultural sector in China. It was estimated that more than 25 million farmers in China are currently engaged in the collection, cultivation processing and marketing of mushrooms. The total value of mushroom products amounted to 149 billion RMB Yuan (24 billion USD) in 2011. The raw materials have expanded from a few hardwoods to a variety of woods and increasing more into agricultural residues and wastes. The average annual growth rate has been over 10% over the past 30 years in China. This paper describes the rapid growth of mushroom cultivation and its contribution to food security and rural sustainable development. The roles of bio-innovation, technological dissemination, and marketing are also examined. Mushrooms could potentially be very important in future food supplies and in new dimensions of sustainable agriculture and forestry.

The transaction cost approach is used to explain why small non-industrial private forest (NIPF) ownerships are increasing in the U.S. We argue that the number of small NIPF owners have increased because: 1) a significant amount of forestland is no longer used economically if primarily for timber production, but rather for non-timber forest products and environmental services (particularly where population density is high), 2) when a person makes frequent use of non-timber products and services, owning forestland is more efficient for them because it saves the transaction costs involved in getting them from the market, 3) forestland parcelization takes place when non-timber value increases faster than timber value, and 4) marginal value for non-timber product is diminishing much faster than that for timber production. The paper also discusses implications of the parcelization of NIPF ownerships on forest management.

Forest plantations have expanded rapidly in response to financial support from the state and local governments and have had significant positive impacts on rural livelihoods and development in Vietnam, since the late 1980s. This study used net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR) to examine the economic performance of plantations for three species, Acacia mangium Willd, Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus urophylla S.T. Blake × Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehn), and Manglietia conifera Dandy, in Bac Kan province. On the basis of an annual discount rate of 6%, the results showed that rural households earned positive financial returns from forest plantations with seven-year rotations. Eucalyptus generated the highest NPV but A. mangium generated the greatest IRR. The plantations were facilitated by financial support from the state, land tenure reforms, and wood exports. The results provide valuable business information and policy implications for both local farmers and policy makers. Since the farmers consider more of the short term and economic return of the plantations, the results provide valuable information for policy makers to apply subsidies and other support to promote plantations with significant ecological and environmental benefits for sustainable development of rural economies.