How do forests contribute to the livelihoods of the people living within or around them? It is known that people harvest timber, fuel wood or charcoal, medicinal plants, bushmeat, rattan, vines and water but what are the values of these products that are harvested freely? If forests are replaced by another land use how much do the local people lose with the loss of the forest? How else do forests contribute to the national and global economy?
These questions are important to ask because in most tropical countries natural forest is considered to be a free resource. Most development strategies of governments are focused on poverty alleviation of the poorest people. Giving land to foreign investors is a mechanism used to encourage these investors to bring their foreign currency to a country. Land with natural forest is often given away because they are perceived to have little value. However, the benefits created tend to benefit the company that invests in this land, which is often benefiting far fewer people than those that used to benefit from these undervalued resources listed above.
WCS worked with the Uganda National Forest Authority (NFA) with support from the EU Forest Resources Management and Conservation Programme to put a value on these livelihood and ecosystem values. Surveys were carried out around four forest types; protected Afromontane, and Medium Altitude Tropical High Forest, forest on private lands and savanna woodland.
The main results showed that: 1. People living around these forests derived between 8-36% (average=19%) of their total annual income from these forests. If forests are destroyed and these people cannot afford to replace these free good their livelihood security is reduced.
2. People used the forest more at times of year when they had no crops in the fields, what is often termed the ‘hungry gap’. Consequently access to the resources of these forests is even more important than the average percentage income presented in 1.
3. Between 55-82% with an average of 76% of the forest products harvested were consumed in the home, implying that the need is for domestic use.
4. Over 70% of forest products in Uganda derived from public or private land rather than protected areas. There is therefore a need to work with District Authorities to better manage forests on this type of land.
5. Uganda’s forests have a total value of $350 million per year to the country. Only 31% of this is in the formal economy, 33% is in the informal economy (consumed in the home) and 37% is non-marketable values such as water, carbon sequestration, soil conservation and biodiversity. Only 7% of the value comes from timber.
6. 90% of this value accrues directly to Uganda and Ugandans. Only 10% accrues to the International Community. Therefore destroying these forests will affect Ugandans far more directly than it will impact the world as a whole.
7. In 2004 Uganda’s government provided about $7.6 million (including donor funds) to the forestry sector. Donor funding is likely to be phased out with time unless they can be persuaded to invest in forests.
These and other results are summarised in a report: Bush, G.K., Nampindo, S., Aguti, C. and Plumptre, A.J. (2004) Valuing Uganda's Forests>: A Livelihood and Ecosystems Approach. Unpublished report to National Forest Authority, Uganda They are being used to push policy changes within the Ministry of the Environment and Finance to ensure total economic values of forests are taken into consideration when considering options for land uses.