Contribution of Forestry to Poverty Alleviation - APFNet

Livelihood and poverty context in the forests
It has been observed that in areas where forests are still substantial and forest resources abound, poverty
incidence tends to be higher. Family income in these areas usually falls below the poverty thresholds
as forests can only provide subsistence livelihoods, especially in isolated areas. However, there are
unaccounted incomes received by upland households for free like fuelwood, vegetables from their
gardens, water from springs, land rentals and a host of other goods and services that constitute a large
part of household consumption that are usually underestimated in their household income surveys
There are different livelihood activities in the forests that the people are engaged in. Many forest dwellers
do kaingin (swidden) and plant agricultural crops in areas they occupy. They gather and utilize forest
products for household consumption. There is not much issue about this as this is allowed especially
for the indigenous peoples but, legally, the gathering of any forest product without authorization from
the government is a punishable act (PD 705). Some also have ventured in illegal commercial forest
products extraction for sale. The common products that are gathered and sold commercially whether
legally or illegally include timber, rattan, bamboo, resins, honey, fuelwood, and charcoal. Many upland
community members also process some raw materials into handicrafts, novelty and decorative items
and semi-finished products to get higher value.
Deforestation and poverty
Deforestation is the process of the removal of natural forest vegetation and eventual conversion of
originally forested areas into non-forest uses. One of the major drivers of deforestation is forest
conversion to upland agriculture. Forests have been cut down to clear lands for growing agricultural
crops. In 1996, FAO estimated that 60-70% of tropical forest conversion was due to permanent or shortfallow
agriculture (Tenorio 1999 as cited by Bugayong and Peralta 2006). The study by Fernandez et.
al. on the status of cancelled and expired TLAs found that in 27 out of 32 cancelled or expired TLAs
surveyed, these areas were destroyed in varying degrees 5 to 10 years after cancellation or expiration.
Apparently, the displaced workers and adjacent community members moved in to the “open access”
forest areas and occupied them for farming.
Logging is also a primary driver of deforestation in an indirect way. In Balangue’s study (1991) 15% of
dipterocarp forests in the country was permanently lost due to peripheral logging activities, particularly,
allocation of forest areas for road building, logging camps, settlements of workers and cultivation of some
parts of the forests for the production of food for these workers and their dependents. Moreover, logging
also contributed much to subsequent destruction of second growth forests as it provided access to forests
and brought along plenty of people in their operations. When logging stopped, many of the workers and
their relatives opened up and converted forest lands into agricultural and agroforestry farms.
Mining for mineral resources entails clearing of forests (mostly culled forests where soil is lateritic) and
thus adds to the problems of deforestation. Coal mining, for example, entails stripping of the topsoil to
recover the minerals beneath. This happened in the Bagacay mines in Samar where large tracts of forest
areas have been left deforested until now, long after the mining operators left the area. This caused
suffering to communities downstream as they lost some of their livelihood sources that are dependent
on the river.
In some grazing practices, forests are cut down and burned to create land for grazing cattle. Once
burning is repeatedly done, the sturdiest grass (Imperata sp) invades the area, which regressively
becomes the climax vegetation.
The impact of deforestation is now felt adversely in many areas. Coupled with erratic rainfall patterns
in some areas where in a few hours the volume of rainfall exceeds normal levels, mountain slips,
landslides, flash floods, and massive soil erosion are now common occurrences in many upland areas.
These calamities continue to occur resulting in untold miseries and sufferings to people, further
aggravating the massive poverty in the countryside and perpetuating the never-ending cycle of poverty
and environmental degradation.
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