The last chapter explored the direct contributions forests make to household food security. Forests also contribute indirectly to household food security, through the generation of income and employment from the sale and exchange of gathered and processed forest products such as fuelwood, rattan, bamboo and fibres. Forests provide the raw materials for many small-scale rural enterprises such as wood for furniture and implement making. In addition, fuelwood provides the main energy source for many other small-scale processing enterprises such as fish-smoking and beer-brewing.
Marketable forest products provide the opportunity to supplement household income, as well as providing a relief source in times of seasonal and emergency food and cash shortages. The role of these forest-based activities varíes depending on the availability of alternative employment (especially agricultural tasks), the seasonal availability of the forest products, the need for cash income, access to the forest resource, the conditions of the forest resource and access to markets.
No studies directly relate income generating forest activities with household food security. Studies rarely focus on how forest-based income is spent, nor on who spends it. In some cases, for example, forest-earned income is used to purchase foods, in other cases it may be invested in agricultural land or agricultural inputs such as seeds or livestock. Thus the link between generated income and food security must be assumed, while keeping in mind that income also contributes to other "securities" such as housing, education, or clothing.
While forest-based trade varies from region to region depending on markets, the local people, their alternative means of employment and the resources of the different ecosystems in which they live, there are also some characteristics which are common to many forest-based enterprises. They can be summarized as follows:
- small sized and/or household level - rural based
- accessible to the poorer sectors of society - labour intensive
- involve low capital costs
- provide direct benefits to the local economy
Gathering and sale of forest products is an important economic activity for many rural people. A multitude of products are gathered for both local and in some cases the urban or export markets. Most studies appear to focus on products gathered for urban and export markets although these may not be the most important in terms of meeting daily basic needs. No studies have been done which synthesize the disparate information available on forest-based gathering activities. Indeed there are few studies which focus on the economics of forest-based gathering activities. The material presented here is drawn from case studies which do not focus on the links between forest-based gathering and food security. Therefore, the information should be taken as indicative rather than conclusive. Nonetheless, available information illustrates the nature, dimensions and importance of income earned from forest gathering activities for rural households.
Many studies document the importance of the forest product trade for forest dwellers and tribals (e.g. IDRC 1980, Weinstock 1983, Connelly 1985, Endicott 1980). However, many agricultural people also depend on the income earned through forest product gathering. In their study conducted in a lowland village in the Philippines, Siebert and Belsky (1985) reveal that 73% of the households in the region cannot generate enough food or cash income from agriculture to meet basic needs. The authors found that all village households collected forest products for supplementary and emergency income. Furthermore, more than half of the households depended on rattan collection and timber wage-labour as a primary source of livelihood (see Table 3.17). It is generally the men from the poorer households who depend most on rattan collection, although more households become involved in collection and trade as agricultural conditions worsen.
Siebert and Belsky (1985) conclude that the labour intensive nature and decentralised trade structure of rattan and other non-timber product gathering activities provide more benefits to local economies compared with the timber industry. The majority of rattan is collected to meet local market demands (81% of the rattan was sold to a local furniture manufacturer). Prices generally vary depending on the time of year as well as the grade of the cane collected. In this area the quality of the rattan as well as the ease with which it can be found are diminishing because of high exploitation and increased land clearing for agriculture.
Babassu palm (Orbignva martiana) kernel collection and oil processing in northeastern Brazil provides another example of income earned by farmers from forest. gathering activities (May et al. 1985a). The researchers assert that millions of subsistence level farmers in the region rely on cash earned from the sale of gathered and oil-processed kernels. The majority of farmers in the area are landless (tenant farmers) and kernel collection is one of the few ways they can supplement their cash income. Kernel collection and sale corresponds with the slack period in agriculture, as well as the period of most severe cash needs. Both men and women are involved with the collection of Babassu fruit, though it is primarily the women who are involved with oil extraction from the kernels. The palm also provides a multitude of other products including thatch, basketry, charcoal, and food (see Table 3.1).
Percent of families interviewed (n = sample size) | ||||||
Municipio |
Thatch |
Basketry |
Charcoal |
Milk |
Oil |
Palmito |
Bacabal (n=104) |
86 |
96 |
96 |
44 |
53 |
na |
Lima Campos (n=64) |
94 |
83 |
92 |
70 |
66 |
8 |
Sao Bento (n=57) |
76 |
72 |
49 |
72 |
74 |
16 |
Chapadinha (n=98) |
86 |
90 |
96 |
89 |
91 |
42 |
Average |
86 |
85 |
83 |
69 |
71 |
22 |
Source: May et al., 1985a. |
The fuelwood trade increasingly provides another source of cash income for many rural agriculturalists, especially women. Most studies about fuelwood focus on fuelwood consumption and the physical biomass supply. Only recently have studies begun to address issues such as the income to be earned by rural households in the trade. In a detailed study of the production, marketing and household use of fuelwood in three rural and urban areas of Sierra Leone, Kamara (1986) found that the rural fuelwood market is located primarily in villages near roads leading to towns. Most traders sell fuelwood part-time in order to supplement their household income. The majority of fuelwood collectors and sellers are women both in the rural and urban areas, although rural men provide about 20% of the marketed fuelwood. The cash income earned from fuelwood collection plays an important role in the agricultural cycle: it provides the first cash income from land cleared for rice production; subsequently, fuelwood collection for the market is concentrated during the off-peak agriculture period, providing cash income in a period when food supplies are generally at their lowest.
Fuelwood is characteristically traded between rural and urban areas, although some wood is purchased in rural areas suffering from severe deforestation or by rural processing enterprises requiring large quantities of fuelwood. Generally there is open market access, many buyers and sellers, few if any government price interventions, and high transportation costs in relation to the value of the fuelwood. There are many means of transportation ranging from the headload to large trucks.
There is a wide range of forest and tree products which undergo simple processing at the household or small-scale rural enterprise level. The information on processing enterprises presented here is based on a recent study which summarizes data from six countries on the nature, magnitude and contribution of forest-based small-scale enterprises to rural income and employment (Fisseha 1987). The study found that the majority of enterprises produce furniture, agricultural implements, vehicle parts, baskets, mats and other products of cane, reeds and vines. They serve predominantly rural household and agricultural markets, and are usually their principal source of supply. Handicrafts production, however, generally serves urban and occasionally export markets. The main types of processing activities are summarized in Table 3.2.
FBSSI types 2 |
% of total number of enterprises | |||||
Jamaica |
Honduras |
Zambia |
Egypt |
Sierra Leone |
Bangladesh | |
Saw-milling/ Pitswawing |
0.8 |
3.2 |
5.6 |
-.- |
0.1 |
0.9 |
Carpentry/ furniture |
23.1 |
71.4 |
14.3 |
23.8 |
66.8 |
27.2 |
Wood carving/ bamboo/cane |
12.5 |
0.2 |
11.9 |
-.- |
5.9 |
11.6 |
Basket/mat/ hat making |
63.5 |
10.6 |
60.3 |
70.4 |
23.8 |
32.4 |
Others1 |
0.1 |
14.6 |
7.9 |
5.8 |
3.4 |
27.9 |
1. The "Other" category includes activities such as broom making in Honduras, fuelwood in Zambia, agricultural tools in Egypt, and container making and agricultural tools in Bangladesh. 2. Many FBSSIs do not specialize in the production of one item; so classi- fication sometimes depends on the most dominant or important activity. | ||||||
Source: Fisseha. 1987. |
Most of these enterprises are very small: over half the units surveyed in the six countries are one-person, household-based operations. The average size of the work force range from 1.7 to 3.8 persons, and less than one percent employ 10 workers or more. Most enterprises are owned by people (or family members) working in them. Nine out of ten labourers own (or their families own) the enterprise, other workers are "employed" as informal apprentices. Women figure prominently as owners as well as employees (see Table 3.3). In Jamaica, for example, 32% of the enterprises are owned by women; in addition women make up 30% of the labor force.
Attribute |
Jamaica |
Honduras |
Zambia |
Egypt |
Sierra Leone |
Bangladesh |
Proportion of total FBSSIs (%) | ||||||
One-person operations Production at home, not workshop Rural location: - Enterprises Employment Women's share: - Ownership - Labour force % family members in - Labour force(No) - Hours worked Mean Values: N2 of workers per enterprise Total investment (US$) Hrs. worked annually per worker Annual production value per firm (US$) |
58 52 88 79 32 30 82 68 2.2 3030 990 4979 |
59 72 100 100 10 6 51 57 2.2 1055 1247 2536 |
69 81 96 95 12 12 86 -.- 1.71 -.- 1205 -.- |
69 76 80 65 65 31 89 89 1.9 -.- 1712 1501 |
-.- -.- 99 96 -.- -.- (41) 34 1.8 431 2004 1384 |
36 -.- 97 -.- (3) 21 73 -.- 3.8 255 836 2362 |
1. The number of hours per work er for Zambia is estimated from the one-visit survey. | ||||||
Source: Fisseha, 1987. |
There appears to be clear distinction between the types of enterprises involving women and men. The information from Zambia summarised in Table 3.4 illustrates this distinction. Carving and basket making are predominantly household-based enterprises. Women are owners of a large share of the enterprises in broom making, bamboo/cane processing and twine/rope making; but are rarely involved in carpentry and furniture making. This distinction has important implications for food security as is discussed in later sections; the former are generally less remunerative, and yet women's income may be crucially important to the stability of the household's food supply.
FBSSE sub-group |
Share of Total Labour Force (X) |
Share (%) of women | ||||
Proprietor |
Family Members1 |
Hired workers |
Apprentices |
Workers |
Owners | |
Pitsawing |
42 |
19 |
28 |
11 |
5 |
4 |
Carpentry/ Furniture |
59 |
23 |
13 |
5 |
1 |
1 |
Carving/Basket |
69 |
20 |
3 |
9 |
16 |
15 |
Other mfg.2 |
60 |
33 |
6 |
2 |
39 |
48 |
Total Mfg.3 |
64 |
21 |
7 |
8 |
12 |
12 |
Retail |
81 |
15 |
1 |
3 |
5 |
6 |
Vending |
60 |
25 |
6 |
9 |
38 |
31 |
Total Serv. |
62 |
24 |
6 |
8 |
35 |
31 |
Grand Total |
64 |
22 |
7 |
8 |
14 |
13 |
1 "Family members" does not include proprietors; however both proprietors and family members together are referred to as "family labour". 2 Due to rounding off numbers, cumulative percentages may not add up to | ||||||
100. 3 "Mfg." and "sere." stand respectively for manufacturing and services. | ||||||
Source: Fisseha, Y. and J. Milimo, 1986. |
Information on the collection and importance of forest products generally focuses either on those products which are traded at the national or international level, or on listing species useful for gathering or processing. The first approach provides little insight into the importance of these products in rural household economies. Tables 3.5 and 3.6 describe the value of forest production in Korea. While these figures do indicate the relative importance of "secondary forest products" they provide no information about the numbers of people trading and using these products nor how much rural people can earn or gain from their exploitation. In addition, such figures reflect the minimum production as locally traded products generally go unrecorded. On the other hand, studies which focus on the uses of forest products usually only provide long lists of species which provide little information for forest planners.
No. |
Classification |
Value in mill. Won. |
Production % |
A. Primary Products _ | |||
1. Timber 2. Bamboo 3. Fuelwood |
23,130 441 28,151 |
14.73 0.28 17.92 | |
Total A |
51,722 |
32.93 | |
B. Secondary Products | |||
1. Manure material 2. Forage 3. Nuts and fruits 4. Mushrooms 5. Resin 6. Cork 7. Soil and Stones 8. Others |
64,176 16,112 7, 680 4,453 358 30 9,571 2,807 |
40.85 10.26 5.00 2.83 0.23 0.02 6.09 1.79 | |
Total B |
105,367 |
67.07 | |
Total A + B |
157,089 |
100.00 | |
N.B. 1 US$ = + 476 Won Source: L.W.M. Meulenhoff and Toga M. Silitonga, 1978. |
Product |
Years | |||||
1967 |
1968 |
1969 |
1970 |
1971 |
1972 | |
Turpentine Cork-oak bark Pine mushrooms Oak mushrooms1 Arrow-root fibre Chestnuts |
1,568 1,030 59 108 58 1,201 |
1,189 1,000 118 139 174 1,793 |
611 1,000 119 160 233 1,734 |
519 973 192 187 381 2,333 |
689 768 65 208 274 2,789 |
459 772 170 263 204 2,905 |
1"Kuzu" fibre Source: FAO, 1982a. |
With the exception of Fisseha's study, few have attempted to assess the magnitude and extent of forest-based income earning activities. Therefore, no direct comparisons or overall figures are presented as they would be meaningless given the literature available (i.e. country-wide estimates compared with village level studies). What follows is a tapestry, disparate examples from the literature which in their entirety illustrate the magnitude and importance of these forest-based activities in rural (and thus national) economies.