Exploring the forest - poverty link

This infobrief provides key points that in exploring the link from forests to poverty alleviation, two key questions arise: What role can forests and forestry play in the efforts to reduce poverty in developing countries? And to what extent do forests help prevent extreme hardship, even when they do...

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Autor principal: Center for International Forestry Research
Formato: Brief
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Center for International Forestry Research 2003
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/18993
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author Center for International Forestry Research
author_browse Center for International Forestry Research
author_facet Center for International Forestry Research
author_sort Center for International Forestry Research
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description This infobrief provides key points that in exploring the link from forests to poverty alleviation, two key questions arise: What role can forests and forestry play in the efforts to reduce poverty in developing countries? And to what extent do forests help prevent extreme hardship, even when they don’t reduce poverty? A striking gap exists between, on the one hand, the neglect of forests in economic development and poverty reduction strategies and on the other, the high (and sometimes unrealistic) expectations regarding the role for forest products in parts of the forest literature. From a macro-level perspective, economic growth normally does trickle down to the poor, at least over time and at aggregate scales. The forest literature tends to ignore this effect, including the impact of forest rents flowing into other sectors. Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) serve subsistence needs, can have important ‘gap filling’ fnctions and sometimes provide regular cash income. However, there is a strong association between poverty and NTFP dependence. Paradoxically, the same characteristics that make NTFPs important and attractive to the poor, also limit their potential for increasing incomes. Timber has traditionally been the rich man’s lot but the current trends of increased local control over natural forests, smallholder tree growing and small scale, wood-based enterprises may somewhat modify this picture. The realm of payments for ecological services is expanding rapidly and has a huge potential but the extent to which the poor will benefit remains uncertain. The choices relating to livelihood and poverty definitions, concepts and indicators clearly influence policy and project design, as well as research results and interpretations. Particularly promising topics for future study are identified within the fields of: assessing current forest-based benefits to the poor; exploring emerging market opportunities; and evaluating cross-cutting institutional and extra-sectoral issues.
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spelling CGSpace189932025-01-24T14:11:46Z Exploring the forest - poverty link Center for International Forestry Research forests poverty non-timber forest products This infobrief provides key points that in exploring the link from forests to poverty alleviation, two key questions arise: What role can forests and forestry play in the efforts to reduce poverty in developing countries? And to what extent do forests help prevent extreme hardship, even when they don’t reduce poverty? A striking gap exists between, on the one hand, the neglect of forests in economic development and poverty reduction strategies and on the other, the high (and sometimes unrealistic) expectations regarding the role for forest products in parts of the forest literature. From a macro-level perspective, economic growth normally does trickle down to the poor, at least over time and at aggregate scales. The forest literature tends to ignore this effect, including the impact of forest rents flowing into other sectors. Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) serve subsistence needs, can have important ‘gap filling’ fnctions and sometimes provide regular cash income. However, there is a strong association between poverty and NTFP dependence. Paradoxically, the same characteristics that make NTFPs important and attractive to the poor, also limit their potential for increasing incomes. Timber has traditionally been the rich man’s lot but the current trends of increased local control over natural forests, smallholder tree growing and small scale, wood-based enterprises may somewhat modify this picture. The realm of payments for ecological services is expanding rapidly and has a huge potential but the extent to which the poor will benefit remains uncertain. The choices relating to livelihood and poverty definitions, concepts and indicators clearly influence policy and project design, as well as research results and interpretations. Particularly promising topics for future study are identified within the fields of: assessing current forest-based benefits to the poor; exploring emerging market opportunities; and evaluating cross-cutting institutional and extra-sectoral issues. 2003 2012-06-04T09:09:01Z 2012-06-04T09:09:01Z Brief https://hdl.handle.net/10568/18993 en Center for International Forestry Research CIFOR. 2003. Exploring the forest - poverty link . CIFOR Infobrief No.7. Bogor, Indonesia, CIFOR. 4p.
spellingShingle forests
poverty
non-timber forest products
Center for International Forestry Research
Exploring the forest - poverty link
title Exploring the forest - poverty link
title_full Exploring the forest - poverty link
title_fullStr Exploring the forest - poverty link
title_full_unstemmed Exploring the forest - poverty link
title_short Exploring the forest - poverty link
title_sort exploring the forest poverty link
topic forests
poverty
non-timber forest products
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/18993
work_keys_str_mv AT centerforinternationalforestryresearch exploringtheforestpovertylink