Poverty-Forests Linkages Toolkit - IUCN

30 OVERVIEW
POVERTY-FORESTS LINKAGES TOOLKIT
crops and separately for forest products is a useful
comparison that helps to explain the ‘visibility’ of
forest products in the national economy. For example,
in both Uganda and Ghana the contribution of forest
products to cash income is much less than for
agricultural products, which may help to explain their
limited consideration in the first iteration of these
countries’ PRSPs. For Cameroon and Madagascar the
situation is reversed, with forest products playing a
greater contribution to peoples’ cash income.
Country
Ratio of subsistence
to cash for
agricultural crops
Ratio of subsistence
to cash for
forest products
Uganda 1:1 3:1
Ghana 1:1 2:1
Cameroon 2:1 1:1
Madagascar 2:1 1:1
5. Forest product contribution to cash income. The above
tables provide some ‘headline’ figures around which
various policy messages can be constructed that will
be of interest at the national level. However, the analysis
of tool 4 can go one step further and provide a
graphical summary across sites and by wealth and gender.
Gender, in particular, is recognized as an important
determinant of wealth status and so current use of
forest products by gender may provide some clues for
further interesting lines of enquiry.
The four charts that follow are automatically
produced on completion of the standard project
spreadsheet to show how the cash component of
respondents’ combined income from forest products
varies across respondent groups and sample sites
(similar charts are also produced for the non-cash
component).
These graphs can highlight interesting patterns of forest
product use that can be developed into policy messages
for consideration at the national level. For example:
(a) in Ghana
n As a contribution to cash income, forest products are
more important for women than for men. This holds
as incomes (i.e. wealth status) rise. Forest products
represent a significant source of cash for poor women.
Income earned from the sale of forest products represented
20-30% of poor women’s’ total livelihood in
two of the sample villages.
n For cash income, the northern savannah forests (surrounding
the villages of Siisi and Dagare) appear to
provide a greater contribution to rural livelihoods
than the southern high canopy forests. This is closely
related to the presence of a forest product (the shea
nut tree—Vitellaria paradoxa) that can be readily commercialised
by individuals (mostly women).
(b) in Uganda
n In the south-west villages (Ncundura and Muhindura)
poor men from the Abatwa culture make considerable
commercial use of forest products due to their
intimate knowledge of the forest. This is despite many
of them having been evicted from statutorily protected
forest areas. Without access to land, government
is faced with a major challenge to secure for them
alternative sources of livelihood. Land disputes—and
continuing forest loss—can be expected to continue
until there is a resolution of their situation.
(c) in Cameroon
n The relative high levels of cash generation from forest
products in Mapanja village are related to the presence of
a high value forest product: the bark of Prunus africana.
Preparation of a national briefing paper
Once all the analysis is complete, it is necessary to
draw some conclusions and present these in a briefing
paper that will hold the attention of those involved in
policy development. The target audience of this paper
will be those decision-makers at national level, within
the civil service (most importantly in the agencies
responsible for poverty reduction strategies, forestry