About: Forest resources play a crucial role for many livelihoods in the rural areas in Myanmar. Households in rural area of Myanmar, especially destitute households, depend on the forest related activities as one of the income diversification activities. This study estimated forest dependency and identified factors influencing dependency for households living around the Popa Mountain Park (PMP) in Myanmar. A sample of 75 households was randomly selected from three villages surrounding the Popa Mountain Park to analyze the significant of forest income in the rural household economy. The data were collected using structured questionnaire interviews, direct observation and group discussion. This study found that forest income contributes 38.82%, and farm income and non-farm income contribute 34.87% and 26.31% to the total household income respectively. Major forest products around PMP include firewood, medicinal plants, bamboo shoot, honey and others. OLS Regression analysis showed that agricultural income and non-farm income are scientifically and negatively correlated with the forest income. The findings go along with that of similar studies that, providing alternative source of income for the livelihood either through employment opportunities or by a source of income from cultivation would greatly reduce the dependence on the forest. The study concluded that consideration to socioeconomic characteristics of households living around PMP is essential in forestry conservation programs. Therefore, the government should consider measures to increase agricultural production and generate off-farm employment opportunities for rural communities in general and enhance conservation around Popa Mountain Park in particular. Also environmental education programmes should be encouraged in order to reduce dependence on the protected forests.
Forest Department of Myanmar has called for private investment in plantation forestry by granting forest land concession right since 2006-07. On the other hand, rural peoples of the country, representing about 70% of total population, rely on forest resources and forest land for their livelihood. This paper explores the socio-economic impacts of private forest plantations on rural communities in Pyu Township, Taungoo district, Bago Region, Myanmar. According to our results private forest plantations have the potential to positively impact on local people's wealth and well-being, if enough emphasis is paid attention to minimize the negative impacts. The household survey data of 213 observations from two villages were analyzed using binary and multinomial logistic regression analyses. The study reveals that forest plantations make threat the basis of traditional rural livelihoods by reducing the availability of natural resources. However, investments gave also supported the diversification of livelihood strategies in the communities by providing formal employment and by increasing business and trading activities. As a rapid growth of populations and traditional agricultural practices have led to the overexploitation of natural resources, non-natural resource-based livelihood strategies increase the resilience of a household. Most respondents give the facts on plantations to have either no overall impact or a positive impact on the well-being of their household. According to our results, socio-economic household characteristics only marginally point out respondents' perceptions of the impacts of forest plantations but perceptions differ significantly between individual villages.
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