The impact of forest product collection and processing on household income in rural Liberia

Abstract

Forests and trees can provide a means to alleviate poverty while simultaneously addressing climate change and other sustainability goals. However, empirical evidence on the income and livelihoods effects of collecting and processing forest products (including timber and non-timber forest products), remains limited. Evidence is especially sparse across multiple spatial scales within countries and in certain regions, such as West Africa. We respond to this knowledge gap by estimating the impacts of forest product collection and processing on smallholder household income and the spatial variability of impacts across counties and regional clusters in Liberia, the most forested country in West Africa. We applied endogenous treatment effect and multilevel mixed effects regression to survey data from a sample of 2983 forest proximate households across Liberia in 2019. Results show that the collection and processing of forest products increased household income by 139% with statistically significant variation across counties by 26%. Pathway analyses show that participation in such enterprises affected household income through both timber and non-timber forest products (NTFPs), with NTFPs having higher impacts at 167% compared to timber at 115%. This study demonstrates that involvement in the forest sector can significantly enhance rural incomes and suggests that forests may form a viable pathway to realize poverty alleviation and sustainability goals in Liberia, elsewhere in West Africa, and beyond.