The impact of forest resource decline: Analyzing forest-related income supplements to reduce income inequality and poverty of the Kouy indigenous people living in Kampong Thom province, Cambodia

ABSTRACT

The study examines the effects of declining forest resources on income inequality and poverty among indigenous people and the impact of forest-related income supplements. We conducted surveys and used the Gini index to compute the contribution of income earned from (1) agriculture, (2) forest-related resources, and (3) self-employment and wages, and to assess the income inequality of households in the study sites. The Gini index of the total income from three clusters of income generating activities was 0.45. Cluster 1: agricultural production was the largest source of income (Gini = 0.30). The share of income from Cluster 2 (Gini index = 0.49), from community forestry and sustainable resource management, including hunting, NTFP collection, selling low quality timber, and plantation farming, contributed an important supplement to reduce income inequality and poverty. Income from Cluster 3 (Gini = 0.93) was highly unequal across the study sites. The indigenous poor remain dependent on forest products for daily food consumption and for additional income. The study suggests that policy makers should urgently consider supporting community forestry and community protected areas by integrating them with payment for ecosystem services. This would help to halt deforestation, promote the welfare of indigenous people, and reduce income inequality in rural communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Forest-related income
• Gini index
• Lorenz curve
• indigenous people
• income inequality
• Cambodia

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express our deep gratitude to AFoCo for providing full a PhD scholarship to our author, Nhem Sareth, Cambodian. Thanks to Action for Development (AFD) for helping with data collection and site observation, particularly, Som Sopheak, Chim Chorn, Lim Vey, Keang Raoul, Pad Vandin, Kroch Kinin, Three Phalla and Keath Tanghourn. Thanks also to Ms. Zoe Dayan for proof reading the manuscript and Meas Sophea, Community Legal Education Center and Ministry of Rural Development for sharing related data and documents on indigenous people in Cambodia.

Funding

This work was supported by a research grant from Kongju National University in 2017.

Notes

¹ The Ministry of Planning (MoP) of Cambodia revised the national poverty criteria in 2013 as follows: (1) the food poverty threshold is pegged through a Reference Food Basket at 2,200 K-Calories; (2) the cost of the 14 non-food items component in the poverty line is not statistically estimated, but substantively determined; (3) the cost that individuals should be spending on purified water outside Phnom Penh, where it is assumed to be reasonably clean; (4) separate estimates are made for three geographical regions, Phnom Penh, other Urban Areas and Rural Areas; (5) there are no imputed expenditures, only the actually incurred expenses (in cash or kind) are counted. Poverty in Cambodia – A new approach: Redefining the poverty line (MoP, 2013, p.4). set as footnote, formatted appropriately, on the cited page

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a research grant from Kongju National University in 2017.