Economic dependencies of Forest dwellers on forest resources of Central Zagros in Lordegan City

Abstract

Forest resources play an important role in welfare and poverty reduction in rural and nomadic areas, since forest dwellers have less income and development than other people, and this affects their use of forest resources and leads to resource degradation. From the past, the Zagros dwellers have used wood and non-wood products, and these products have played a major role in their economy. In this study, an attempt has been made to determine the economic dependencies on forests in the forests of Sardasht, Lordegan city in central Zagros. The approach used in this study was a quantitative description and analysis using semi-structured interviews. First, the impact of forest income on household economy was investigated, and then the poverty line and poverty indicators including headcount, poverty gap, Foster, Greer and Thorbecke, Amartya Sen and the Gini coefficient were calculated and evaluated. The results showed that the people of the region have nine livelihood strategies, where the income from labor is first, and the forest with an annual income of 27 million Rials per household has the second share of the economy with 18.07%. The poverty frequency was 76 percent which has reached 88% by eliminating the forest income, and 12% of households have been moved below the poverty line, causing an increase of 1.54 times of the poverty depth. Foster, Greer and Thorbecke coefficient was estimated 0.15 that after removing the forest income, it was 0.23. In addition, removing forest income will increase 11% in unequal distribution of incomes. It is necessary to determine the correct strategies to reduce the forest dependence by replacing the appropriate action and, as a result, reduce the amount of forest degradation.

Keywords

• forest income
• local communities
• poverty indicators
• zagros forests