• News
  • Events
  • Subscribe
  • Home
  • About
  • Work
  • Countries
  • Gender
  • Publications
  • Resources
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
You are here: Home1 / Improving occupational health and safety among micro, small and medium...

Improving occupational health and safety among micro, small and medium wood processing enterprises

26 June 2022
Illustration showing OHS challenges for MSMEs in the wood industry
Illustration showing OHS challenges for MSMEs in the wood industry. Source: Wilfredo Elis, European Forest Institute

Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the safety, health and welfare of people at work. Occupational Safety refers to working without danger, risk, injuries, and physical and spiritual loss. Occupational Health means having good hygiene at the workplace without negative impact on the physical and spiritual health of the employees.

The goal of OHS is to foster a safe and healthy working environment. OHS also protects the general public affected by business operations. This is important in the context of the wood processing as it can cause pollution, including from dust, noise and chemicals.

OHS is an important topic for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) because it is an area where capacity is generally low, in particular among micro enterprises. Business owners are seldom trained on OHS, and non-compliance with the relevant laws and regulations are commonly observed throughout the Mekong region.

Poor OHS practices can also have a negative impact on the welfare of workers, resulting in poor performance and low productivity. On the other hand, improving OHS drives good business practices, ensures continuous operations, and reduces pollution. This brief introduces OHS in the context of the wood-processing industry, describes challenges faced by MSMEs and shares training recommendations based on the experience of our Forest Smallholder Project in the Mekong region.

Read the briefing:

  • Improving occupational health and safety among micro, small and medium wood processing enterprises. Experiences from the Mekong region

Go to training materials:

  • Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) – MSME – Wood Processing

Tags: capacity building, private sector
https://forestsmallholders.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/OHS-illustration-MSME-worker.jpg 1233 1200 Forest Smallholders https://forestsmallholders.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/ForestSmallholders_WebLogo_Tagline_3lines-12.svg Forest Smallholders2022-06-26 10:00:002022-10-14 15:51:36Improving occupational health and safety among micro, small and medium wood processing enterprises
You might also like
COVID-19 takes a heavy toll on Myanmar’s wood-based micro and small businesses
Monruedee Taemduem poses next to the tree she tagged.Somporn KhongthanakrittakornThe road to equal opportunities in Thailand’s forest sector: Women engage in tree planting and timber processing for sustainable livelihoods

News

  • Rujinaree Ar-lai shows her wood lamp product made from wood waste.Konwilai WongyothChampioning gender equality in the small-scale forest sector8 March 2023 - 8:21 am

    On this year’s Women’s Day, the Forest Smallholders Project is highlighting the importance of gender equality in the small-scale forest sector. Gender equality is a crucial factor in creating a sustainable and equal future.

  • Husband and wife displaying their products at a trade fair, Lao PDR.Khamphoui SaythalaPromoting gender equality and women’s economic empowerment in the Mekong region’s small-scale forest sector26 June 2022 - 10:42 am

    We have published a briefing paper to analyse how gender equality in the Mekong small-scale forest sector can be pursued through promoting women’s economic rights and empowerment

  • Illustration showing OHS challenges for MSMEs in the wood industryWilfredo Elis / European Forest InstituteImproving occupational health and safety among micro, small and medium wood processing enterprises26 June 2022 - 10:00 am

    We have published a technical briefing to introduce OHS in the context of the wood-processing industry, describing challenges faced by MSMEs and sharing training recommendations based on our experience in the Mekong region.

  • Legality in the forest sector: New insights into obstacles and incentives for MSME formalisation3 August 2021 - 2:45 pm

    In a new joint report, the FAO-EU FLEGT Programme and the European Forest Institute (EFI) make a case for acknowledging the complex circumstances of forest-sector MSMEs, particularly in countries where requirements for legality compliance and achieving formal status are unclear.

  • MSMEs important partner to improve forest governance and reducing deforestation and forest degradation23 July 2021 - 8:10 am

    To better understand strategies to support MSMEs towards goals, the FAO-EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Programme and the European Forest Institute (EFI) hosted a webinar entitled ‘How has supporting MSMEs to operate legally and sustainably improved forest governance and livelihoods?’.

About the Forest Smallholders Project

Since 2016, the European Forest Institute (EFI) has been supporting wood-based micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in four Mekong countries to operate legally and sustainably. Under its Forest Smallholders Project, EFI has been testing solutions to MSMEs’ key challenges in pilot projects. Lessons learnt from these pilots are documented and disseminated nationally, regionally and internationally. Through its support to MSMEs, the Project promotes gender equality and women’s economic empowerment in the forest sector.

Disclaimer

This website has been produced with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. The contents of this website are the sole responsibility of the authors and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of funding organisations.

Terms of use | Privacy notice | Subscribe | Contact us
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0. Credit information: European Forest Institute, www.efi.int
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

OkLearn more

Cookie and privacy settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Essential website cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Google Analytics cookies

These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our communication campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you to enhance your experience.

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts and external Video providers.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Privacy notice

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy notice page.

Privacy notice
Accept settingsRefuse all cookies