Contribution of Dry Forest Products to Household Income and Determinants of Forest Income Levels in the Northwestern and Southern Lowlands of Ethiopia

Abstract

Dry forests are dominant vegetation types in East Africa. The contribution of these resources to local livelihoods is poorly understood. This study was conducted to quantify the contribution of dry forest products to household income and to identify factors that influence forest income level in the northwestern and southern lowlands of Ethiopia. Data was collected using key informant interviews, focus group discussions and formal survey administered to 428 randomly selected households from representative districts in three regional states. Regression analysis, one way ANOVA, chi-square and t-tests were used to analyze the quantitative data. The major sources of household income are crop production, livestock farming, forest products, off-and non-farm activities, and remittances and aid, contributing respectively to 46.3%, 27.6%, 17.0%, 6.3% and 2.8% of the household income. The relative importance of forest income to total household income varied significantly across wellbeing categories (P < 0.001), representing 31.8%, 15.5% and 9.9% respectively for poor, medium and rich households and also between male headed (16.1%) and female headed (23.5%) households(P < 0.001). In terms of magnitude, however, forest income differed significantly (P < 0.05) with wealth category of households but not with the gender of the household head. Forest income level was significantly and positively influenced by family size (P < 0.01) and being a member of gums and resins producers cooperative (P < 0.01), while distance to the forest resource (P < 0.01) and being in Tigray or Amhara Regional States (Oromia being reference state) negatively and significantly affected forest income levels of households. Attempts to promote sustainable management of dry forests should recognize these factors that influence access to forests and forest income level of different members of the community to ensure equita- B. Teshome et al. 332 ble responsibility and benefit sharing arrangements and inclusive participation for better livelihoods and conservation outcomes.

Interaction between Rural People’s Basic Needs and Forest Products: A Case Study of the Katha District of Myanmar

“…The contribution of the total income of forest products to the total household income (Figure 2) is relatively low when compared with that found in other studies, which reported that the NTFPs contributed significantly to the total household income in Ethiopia [45], Nepal [46], and China [47]. Similar to other studies, the contribution from forest income to total income was found to be highest in HHs under the low-income group [38,48].…”

“…Each of these benefits has a different relationship with people and is mediated by social structures that allow people to receive them [9,[40][41][42][43]. In this study, forest dependency is considered people's economic dependence on the forest [15,[44][45][46][47][48], specifically the forest net income and the collected varieties of forest products usually used by people to meet their basic needs such as subsistence. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression was run to identify the influence of HH characteristics variables on the forest products.…”

Boswellia and Commiphora Species as a Resource Base for Rural Livelihood Security in the Horn of Africa: A Systematic Review

“…Aromatic resins are used in various industries, including pharmacology, cosmetics and perfumery, flavouring, etc. [81,82]. Aromatic resins provide significant revenues not only to households; national governments also generate a lot of hard currency in the related export trade [28].…”

“…In particular, the open-access dryland vegetation is a key source of feed for the livestock [24]. Thus, the different kinds of products provided by the woodlands and wooded grasslands of the region are important in improving livelihoods and alleviating poverty of the rural communities in a sustainable way [9,69,82,84]. Boswellia and Commiphora spp.…”

“…However, the financial contribution and the entire socio-economic importance of dryland resources are commonly ignored in economic policies and development strategies in Africa, even if it is widely acknowledged that these resources can help rural communities in coping with poverty and seasonal food shortages and in adaptation to climate-driven environmental and social changes [13,82].…”