Role of Forest Resources to Local Livelihoods: The Case of East Mau Forest Ecosystem, Kenya
TLDR
In this article, the role of forest resources in livelihoods of the local communities was investigated by interviewing 367 households, and the authors found that the rich households derived higher forest income while the poor households were more dependent on forests resources.Abstract:
Forests in Kenya are threatened by unsustainable uses and conversion to alternative land uses. In spite of the consequences of forest degradation and biodiversity loss and reliance of communities on forests livelihoods, there is little empirical data on the role of forest resources in livelihoods of the local communities. Socioeconomic, demographic, and forest use data were obtained by interviewing 367 households. Forest product market survey was undertaken to determine prices of various forest products for valuation of forest use. Forest income was significant to households contributing 33% of total household income. Fuel wood contributed 50%, food (27%), construction material (18%), and fodder, and thatching material 5% to household forest income. Absolute forest income and relative forest income (%) were not significantly different across study locations and between ethnic groups. However, absolute forest income and relative forest income (%) were significantly different among wealth classes. Poor households were more dependent on forests resources. However, in absolute terms, the rich households derived higher forest income. These results provide valuable information on the role of forest resources to livelihoods and could be applied in developing forest conservation policies for enhanced ecosystem services and livelihoods.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Perceived barriers to and drivers of community participation in protected-area governance.
TL;DR: Challenges related to comanagement of PAs are illustrated: understanding the heterogeneous nature of communities; ensuring all households are represented in governance participation; understanding differences in the meaning of forest protection; and targeting interventions to reach households most in need to avoid elite capture.
Journal ArticleDOI
Contribution of Forest Restoration to Rural Livelihoods and Household Income in Indonesia
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated variation in forest utilization across households in three ethnic groups living near a forest restoration area in Sumatra, Indonesia, and found that the livelihoods of indigenous groups were still intricately linked with forest resources, despite a rapid landscape-wide transition from natural forest to oil palm and timber plantations.
Journal ArticleDOI
Elephant Crop Damage: Subsistence Farmers’ Social Vulnerability, Livelihood Sustainability and Elephant Conservation
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored the social dimensions of human-elephant interactions in the wildlife-agrarian landscape and revealed that the status of relational social capital influences human-Elephant conflict (HEC) management and subsistence farmers' responses, regardless of the farmers' social learning and environmental values about the social-ecological system.
Book ChapterDOI
Forest Resources of Jharkhand, Eastern India: Socio-economic and Bio-ecological Perspectives
Rahul Kumar,Purabi Saikia +1 more
TL;DR: Jharkhand is one of the biodiversity rich states of India because of its origin, diverse physiographic and climatic conditions as discussed by the authors, it is well known due to its tribal populations, mineral resources, and its vast forest resources.
References
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Book
Rural Livelihoods and Diversity in Developing Countries
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a framework for livelihoods analysis in rural Tanzania based on a case-study in Rural Tanzania, focusing on the gender and rural living conditions.
Journal ArticleDOI
Livelihoods, forests, and conservation in developing countries: an overview
William D. Sunderlin,Arild Angelsen,Brian Belcher,P. Burgess,Robert Nasi,L. Santoso,Sven Wunder +6 more
TL;DR: In the literature at the interface of rural livelihood improvement and conservation of natural forests, two overarching issues stand out: (1) how and to what extent use of forest resources do and can contribute to poverty alleviation and (2) How and to how extent poverty mitigation and forest conservation are and can be made convergent rather than divergent goals as discussed by the authors.
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Environmental income and rural livelihoods: a global-comparative analysis.
Arild Angelsen,Pamela Jagger,Ronnie Babigumira,Brian Belcher,Nicholas J. Hogarth,Simone Bauch,Jan Börner,Carsten Smith-Hall,Sven Wunder +8 more
TL;DR: Results from a comparative analysis of environmental income from approximately 8000 households in 24 developing countries collected by research partners in CIFOR’s Poverty Environment Network (PEN).
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Empirical regularities in the poverty-environment relationship of rural households: evidence from Zimbabwe.
TL;DR: Using purpose-collected panel data from Zimbabwe, the authors demonstrate seven empirical regularities in the rural poverty-environment relationship and demonstrate the considerable economic significance of environmental resources to rural households.