Assessing the distributional impact of community forest income Evidence from south-western Nigeria

Purpose - Emerging evidence revealed a high rate of dependence of marginal people on forest resources in developing countries for both subsistence use and cash income. The purpose of this paper is to examine the rural livelihoods welfare dimensions of community forest income in south-western Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach - Forest activities and income pattern data were collected from 160 rural households' selected using multistage sampling approach. Descriptive statistics and Gini decomposition technique were used to analyse the data. Findings - The result shows that forest income accounts for about 38.2 per cent of total household income and was the first ranked source of income in the study area. The Gini decomposition analysis showed that access to forest income is income inequality reducing in the study area. The study findings suggests that household welfare in rural Nigeria could be improved through policies and programmes that can stimulate sustainable access to forest resources and assist households to earn income from alternative sources such as agriculture. Originality/value - The result of the study helped provide information on the uses and benefits of community forests as it affects the well-being of rural people. Also, it provides the benchmark for policy makers, government agencies and NGO's involved in rural livelihood outcome of forest communities.