chainsaw milling and lumber trade in west africa project

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household activity and economic reliance on chainsaw milling (objective 3). The information will helpscale up the results.It looks like we made need to work in a miminum of 9 communities in Ghana (each status typein each of the three regions = 3 x 3 =9). To have an adequate estimate of variability within eachcommunity, a target sample size may be 40 households, giving us a total of 360 households. If it isnecessary to reduce the total sample size, it would be better to reduce the number of householdssampled within a community rather than reduce the number of communities sampled because theexpectation is that the variability in community-based or location factors will be more important inexplaining variability in the costs and benefits accruing to rural people than are the household factors.If the community managed forests are to be included, they would be in addition to the above 9; ifvillages with a migrant farmer population are to be include, they would also be in addition to the 9.Sample size – how will we determine when we have a sufficient sample? For the costs andbenefits, within a community, when you have stop getting new informationThe questionnaires /semi-structured interviews will be used to solicit information on current andhistorical information on household resource use, sources of income, physical and non-physical assets,family demographics and migration, environmental conditions, changes, shocks or uncontrollableevents that have influenced the livelihood options.There will be sections of the questionnaire dedicated to the following aspects:Household attributes / family members / assets /Community-level attributes / forest or tree resource / governance structureBenefits associated with forests, logging and milling (including economic reliance)Costs associated with forests, logging and millingAttitudes around forest resource management and protection (of the household, and thehousehold’s perspective of the wider community, of the chief and assemblyman – thelater might need to be confirmed by triangulation)Conditions necessary to make chainsaw milling socially sustainable? (would it be worth tryingto incorporate a section for only those households that are directly involved to ask themto rank the changes that need to be made to make chainsaw milling more useful fortheir livelihoods?)Data AnalysisA profile of the households interviewed will be developed by summarizing household attributesacross the regions and forest status types. The types of costs and benefits associated with the twotypes of milling activities will be described and compared qualitatively. The proportion of householdsrealising each type of cost and benefit will be calculated and summarized by community. The extent ofhousehold activity in logging and milling, whether small scale chainsaw operations or large scaleoperations will be calculated as the number of households and proportion of households interviewed.Economic reliance is defined as the relative importance of a particular activity as an incomesource or a form of insurance. We will calculate economic reliance by household on 1) large-scalelogging and milling, 2) small-scale chainsaw milling, 3) forest product use. We compared the meaneconomic reliance among the three regions (west, central, east) and by the status of the forest(protected, managed, farmland) using analysis of variance.A multivariate analysis will be used to identify the variables that are more strongly associatedwith household activity and economic reliance on large-scale logging and milling, small-scale chainsawmilling, and forest product use. Bivariate correlation analyses will be conducted on pairs of variables todescribe the strength of associations amongst variables. (We could also use regression analyses to dothis, the characteristics of the data will determine what approach is more appropriate).PART TWO – Chainsaw Milling FirmsAim and objectives• To examine the economics of chainsaw logging and lumbering and the environmental andecological impacts as they compare with large scale operations;• To characterise the distribution of costs and benefits within a firm• To characterise the variability in costs and benefits across firms
• To identify the factors that explain efficiency, access to resources (what else?)• To identify factors that could make chainsaw milling more appropriate (socially, economically,ecologically)• [this is supposed to be done as a comparison with large scale operations – we need to be clearabout what data are available for the large scale operations so that we can structure this part ofthe research to facilitate a comparison]MethodsExperimental DesignThis research will be based on semi-structured interviews with individuals within chainsaw milling firms.The firms included in the sample will be selected to include variability in access to forest resources(western, central, eastern region?), variability in the size of the firms or the scale of their operations(small, medium, large?), ……….. what else?How will we determine what is an adequate sample size here? Are there key variables that we can useto generate confidence intervals and standard errors and set ourselves a target ratio of standard errorto mean?The questionnaires /semi-structured interviews will be used to solicit information on• Attributes of the firm – number of machines (types, age, serviceability), transport vehicles,number of employees (permanent, casual, from where), how long have they been in thebusiness, what did they do previously, how did they get started, what was the source of capitalfor investment (is there still an external source of support?), part of an association?, how wellconnected to other firms is this one? (indication of strength of network?), competition?• Attributes of the resource that they rely on – where do they get their trees, how do they selectthem? What species and sizes are typically taken? How frequently is your work interrupted bylack of access of trees? Has access to trees changed much over time? What has beenresponsible for the change?• Costs and Benefits – wages for various employees (is it paid daily, per volume?), how manydays in a month are the various people employed? (some measure of variability, orconsistency?), machine costs (running, maintenance costs, . . . who bears these costs?),transport costs (estimate on a volume basis?), what are typical extraction costs (per volume?),what influences extraction costs? Where do you sell your product? What is a typical payment?(what is the variability in payments?), what do you pay in fines, sweeteners?• Attitudes / Attributes of the manager/owner – political connectedness, experience withregulation, police, fines• Conditions necessary to make chainsaw milling appropriateData AnalysisPART THREE – Operational efficiency and environmental impactsAim and objectives• To characterise the operation efficiency and environmental impacts of chainsaw milling by smalloperators• To compare the efficiency and impacts with those of large scale operationsMethodsChainsaw millers will be selected in a stratified way, where the strata will reflect the forestresource; for convenience, the strata to be used will be western, central, and eastern region. Weanticipate that it will be difficult to randomize our selection of chainsaw millers, however to ensure thatour sample is unbiased and representative, we will identify potential millers in each region during theinterviews conducted in parts one and two of the study. From this group of potential millers, we willrandomly select a minimum of 15. There may be a need to introduce another layer of stratification toensure that the sample includes a sample representative of different levels of experience typical in thebusiness.
Page 3 and 4: OUTPUT 1A decision support system t
Page 5 and 6: OUTPUT123TABLE 1: SCHEDULE OF ACTIV
Page 7 and 8: ANNEX 1: {DRAFT}Household Survey Qu
Page 9 and 10: Social network16 Which associations
Page 11 and 12: Benefits from forest36 What ownersh
Page 13 and 14: ANNEX 2{DRAFT}Survey of chainsaw fi
Page 15 and 16: 18. Enumerate the cost involved in
Page 17 and 18: e. Volume of the log to be converte
Page 19 and 20: a. In the 1980s, lots of Ghanaians
Page 21: Protocols for Field ResearchBROAD A

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