Measuring Livelihood Diversification and Forest Conservation Choices: Insights from Rural Cameroon

Abstract

While forests’ contribution to rural livelihoods has been unearthed scientifically, the patterns, determinants and forest conservation policy implications of livelihood diversification still beg for more scientific and policy edification. This paper makes a contribution in this regard, using household data (N = 200) from eight villages around the Kilum-Ijim Forest Landscape of Cameroon. The ordinary least square and the logit model are used to explore the determinants of livelihood diversification and the likelihood of forest dependence, respectively. The diversification patterns were analysed using a simple t-test, and the multinomial logit for conservation choices. We find that forest-related activities are a source of livelihood diversification for 63% of households, with non-timber forest products (NTFP) domestication (31%) and medicinal plant extraction (30%) being the most preferred. For non-forest activities, migration is the most preferred diversification strategy. Generally, households with favourable socio-economic status prefer non-forest to forest activities for livelihood diversification. The regression estimates indicate that older respondents are more likely to depend on the forest than the young, whereas males and individuals with at least some secondary education are less likely than their respective counterparts to rely on the forest. The results also suggest those who participated in training, educated household heads and older individuals are significantly more likely to choose high-valued diversification strategies. Concerning conservation activities, households with favourable socio-economic status are on average less likely to adopt NTFP domestication and more likely to adopt bee-keeping as a conservation choice. The results suggest the need for policy considerations to: (i) effectively integrate women in forest management processes, (ii) intensify trainings for conservation-friendly diversification approaches, (iii) regulate unclean energy use and (iv) encourage value chain improvement for conservation-friendly products.

Sustainable Transformative Economy: Community-Based Ecotourism

“…Each variable in the model was coded as one if respondents answered "yes" to an ecotourism service, zero otherwise. Following the utilization maximization theory [54], respondents made decisions based on participation in ecotourism and their perceived utilization of it-jointly affected by their demographic characteristics (i.e., age, education, family size, and labor force) as well as other characteristics relating to ecotourism (i.e., distant to ecotourism site and native residential identification) [48,54]. A reduced form of the binary logistic regression model was applied, Equation (2).…”

“…The concept of local people involved in fostering ecotourism has been modestly studied in developing CBE. Table 2 reports on the environmental, social, and economic impacts of ecotourism based on respondents' perception [2,46,48]. Results indicate the potential of ecotourism had both positive and negative impacts on local communities.…”

“…Among successful ecotourism programs, example employment for local residents include working as a tour guide, cook, homestay host, guesthouse host, boat driver, motorcycle driver, sanitation worker, and forest patrol [6]. Among the few quantitative assessments of local resident participation in ecotourism, Kimengsi et al [48] explored the effect of resident livelihood capital from ecotourism in the Western Highs of Cameroon. It was found that access to education and training showed an inverse relationship versus cultural festivals and wilderness and museum visits by adopting a principle component analysis in combination with the ordinary least square (OLS) technique [48,49].…”

“…Among the few quantitative assessments of local resident participation in ecotourism, Kimengsi et al [48] explored the effect of resident livelihood capital from ecotourism in the Western Highs of Cameroon. It was found that access to education and training showed an inverse relationship versus cultural festivals and wilderness and museum visits by adopting a principle component analysis in combination with the ordinary least square (OLS) technique [48,49]. Further findings suggest the application of structural models that consider that resident environmental knowledge can positively affect attitudes towards ecotourism, which in turn directly and indirectly determines intention to participate in the activity [39,48,50,51].…”

“…It was found that access to education and training showed an inverse relationship versus cultural festivals and wilderness and museum visits by adopting a principle component analysis in combination with the ordinary least square (OLS) technique [48,49]. Further findings suggest the application of structural models that consider that resident environmental knowledge can positively affect attitudes towards ecotourism, which in turn directly and indirectly determines intention to participate in the activity [39,48,50,51]. The robust result of factors affecting resident participation demands further quantitative studies.…”