Rural areas are notoriously difficult to reach. Roads and rail links are usually scarce, often in disrepair, and frequently impassable. This puts transportation high on the list of critical factors determining the commercial viability of ecosystem goods and services that the rural poor may wish to market. In the remote Iquitos region of Peru, for example, transportation costs are often the deciding factor in what is marketed (Neumann and Hirsch 2000:51-52).
Fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, milk, and other perishable items are particularly subject to the limitations of transport infrastructure. In Nigeria
