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The uneven success of tropical forest product marketing initiatives over the past decade has illuminated our poor understanding of forest peasant livelihood systems. This dissertation explores how , when and why peoples living within biodiverse tropical forests turn to the sale of forest products to meet their needs over time, through a detailed examination of commercial forest extraction by the Tawahka Sumu (pop. 1,000) of the Mosquitia region, eastern Honduras. The study uses a multi-method, multi-scalar approach that incorporates conceptual insights from cultural ecology, agricultural economics, and peasant studies. / A detailed household census (n = 116, or 88% of Tawahka households in 1998) was used to establish patterns of reliance on commercial extraction. As a group, the Tawahka were found to manage a diverse market income portfolio in which commercial extraction contributed some 18% in 1997--98 (US$23/capita). At the household level, however, reliance on the extractive sector varied from 0--93%. Analysis of multi-year income data suggests that households move easily into, and out of, the sector. Statistical analysis indicates that the most important determinants of this sporadic engagement are unanticipated household-level calamities (illness, crop shortfall). / This ex post insurance function of commercial extraction was also demonstrated over longer time scales by a detailed historical analysis of the Mosquitia's dugout canoe trade, which revealed that the sale of dugout canoes has provided local peoples with an important fall-back during periods of economic recession. Discussion highlights the dynamism of peasant livelihoods, in which forest product sale is seen as only one response to householders' changing needs over both the lifecycle of the household and larger economic cycles in the region. / The modern dynamics of the canoe trade appear to have changed little over two centuries, emphasizing the little-recognized continuity within native exchange systems despite market penetration and monetization. During the 1990s, the Tawahka sold half of the approximately 500 canoes they made, mainly to Miskito buyers. The future of canoe commerce is threatened by pressures on the forests of the newly-created Tawahka Asangni Biosphere Reserve, including high internal growth rates, ladino colonization, and agricultural reorganization in the wake of Hurricane Mitch. The implications of the study's findings to conservation and development initiatives in the neotropics are discussed.