In many countries of Africa and Asia, timber production is dominated by concession contracts in public forests. In the neo-tropics, however, timber production occurs on both public and private lands; a mixture that moves countries of the neo-tropics towards the complex systems of forestry sectors in the developed world. Therefore, much of the forest taxation and public forest management literature that currently exists is pertinent to new forest policy decisions in developing countries. Unfortunately, the similarities between forest policies in the neo-tropics and those of developed countries have largely been ignored. This paper begins the process of bridging that gap to show how existing literature is important to the design of timber concessions and accompanying policy instrument design. Although the principles we discuss here apply in any mixed harvest forest economy, we use Brazil as an example because it is in the process of adopting a system of timber concessions in national forests. In our discussion, we suggest that concessions are not a perfect substitute for private forestry in the neo-tropics; concession and other instrument policies must be designed jointly; and because concession policies and government revenue objectives may be linked, the expansion of concessions must be carefully monitored.