Rural income and forest dependence

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Rural income and forest dependence some evidence
from Guatemala

• Pablo Prado
• CIFOR, 25th March 2009

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Context

• Montane conifer forests of Central America
• 2567-3600 m a.s.l.
• Rain 825125-1141260
• Area approx. 1,000 sqkm
• 12 villages, 996 hh, sample 271?193?147
• 7122 inhabitants, 5 persons/hh

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Household income sources
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(No Transcript)
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Trends by quarter
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Seasonality
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Key forest and environmental products
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Income composition and poverty
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Other patterns

• Although very few hhs (8.96) reported to have
  used forest productos to weather misfortune, they
  either did nothing (25.93), spent cash savings
  (16.67), received assitance from friends and
  relatives (16.67), harvested more forest
  products (11.11), harvested more agricultural
  products (11.11) or harvested more wild products
  from the forest (1.85).

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Other patterns contd

• No evidence of forest products as stepping stones
  out of poverty, and very weak correlations
  between closeness to markets and forest income
  (DFI and DtM, 0.195 and FDI and DtM, -0.080).
• Subsistence peasant economies with irregular
  market articulations by means of agricultural
  products.

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Policies and overall findings

• Regular subsistence users
• Interdependence between forest conservation and
  both subsistence and small scale commercial
  agriculture
• Firewood and leaf litter are the centrepiece for
  the local subsistence strategies
• Income assymetrically ditributed