Incidence of forest activities on poverty and income inequalities: evidence from forest dependent households in managed forests’ areas in Burkina Faso

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse closely the role and the incidence of forest income in reducing poverty and income inequalities among forest fringe households who are located in joint forest management (JFM) areas in Burkina Faso. Based on a cross-sectional dataset concerning 300 forest fringe households surveyed, poverty indices (Foster et al., 1984) and Gini coefficients are used to examine how forestry contributes to the reduction of poverty and income inequalities in these JFM sites. Our results provide significant evidence about the high dependency of forest fringe households to forest resources and the role of these resources in poverty and income inequality reduction.