Publication Type: | Journal Article |
Year of Publication: | 2005 |
Authors: | Sathyapalan, J |
Journal: | Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics |
Volume: | 60 |
Date Published: | 2005 |
Keywords: | Panthera tigris |
Abstract: | This paper provides some recent evidence regarding forest dependence of households living around the Periyar Tiger Reserve in India where the India-Ecodevelopment project has been launched. The study observed that landownership, seasonality in agriculture and cropping pattern of the area considerably influence the dependence of households on the protected forests. The low wage rates and lack of alternative income earning opportunities in the region leaves them to an obvious choice of forest dependence. In fact, the difference between gross value appropriated from the collection of non-timber forest products and gathering cost acts as an economic incentive to the people to continue forests-based activities. Significantly, most part of the value derived from the collection of forest products is in the form of direct productive use value, which implies that non-timber forest products play a crucial role in supplementing rural household income. This is particularly true in the case of the households belonging to the lower landholding strata. In other words, people belonging to the lower landholding strata have more stakes over the reserve than those belonging to the higher landholding strata. The analysis of the socio-economic characteristics of the households using logit regression shows that households with higher per capita availability of land and those who had been staying on the fringe for longer duration are less likely to depend on the forest. But, households with larger family size and those with livestock ownership are more likely to depend on the forest. |
Households' dependence on protected forests: Evidence from the western Ghats
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