The socio-economic contribution of non-timber forest products to rural livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa: knowledge gaps and new directions
The majority of Sub-Saharan Africa's population relies on forest products for subsistence uses, cash income, or both. In the case of non-timber forest products (NTFPs), it is imperative to 1) clearly understand the socio-economic contributions that they make to rural livelihoods in
order to 2) design policies, interventions, and business ventures that serve to safeguard forest assets for the poor in a targeted manner. Based on existing literature, this article highlights the quantitative contributions that NTFPs have made to rural household incomes in several forested,
Sub-Saharan African countries. Reasons for a paucity of data on this front are discussed. The article then identifies five broad socio-economic factors (location, wealth status, gender, education, and seasonality) affecting levels of dependency on NTFPs by rural households, and calls for a
better understanding of the linkages between these five factors in order for targeted policies on poverty alleviation in forest-dependent communities to be developed.
Keywords: Africa; NTFPs; forests; livelihoods; poverty; socio-economic
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: Africa Forests Research Initiative on Conservation and Development (AFRICAD), The Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, 2424 Main Mall, Vancouver, Canada, V6T-1Z4.
Publication date: 01 September 2010
- The International Forestry Review is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal that publishes original research and review papers on all aspects of forest policy and science, with an emphasis on issues of transnational significance. It is published four times per year, in March, June, September and December. Theme editions are a regular feature and attract a wide audience.
The IFR is part of The Global Forest Information Service - GFIS
International Forestry Review has an Impact Factor of 1.705 - Editorial Board
- Information for Authors
- Submit a Paper
- Subscribe to this Title
- Membership Information
- Information for Advertisers
- Online guide to scientific writing
- Back issues and missing issues
- Ingenta Connect is not responsible for the content or availability of external websites
- Access Key
- Free content
- Partial Free content
- New content
- Open access content
- Partial Open access content
- Subscribed content
- Partial Subscribed content
- Free trial content