This analysis highlights the failure of two Central American countries with very different enabling environments (Honduras and Nicaragua) to develop their infant wooden furniture industries (or, in fact, any significant value addition to lumber), despite having abundant natural resources available and having experienced significant liberalisation of trade since the early 1990s. The link between trade liberalisation and trade growth is questioned, as are state-led approaches to natural resource management of forestry reserves.
Jodie Keane with Alberto Lemma and Jane Kennan based on an original study by Welbin Romero