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Forestland and rural household livelihoods in the North Central Provinces, Vietnam

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  • Nguyen, Thanh Viet
  • Tran, Tuyen Quang

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of forestland on household income, poverty and inequality among households in Vietnam’s poorest rural districts, the North Central Provinces. Randomly selected on the basis of their access to forest resources, 3200 households were interviewed. These people are extremely poor, with 54% living below the poverty line. Forest income constitutes about 17% of their total income; only wage income (37%) ranks higher. Such income is comprised mainly of non-timber forest plants (77%), followed by timber products (18%). However, there is a large gap in forest income between the poor and non-poor. The amount of forest income derived by non-poor households was nearly six times as much as that earned by poor households. Our micro-econometric analysis indicates that gaining access to more forestland would increase household per capita income and reduce the incidence and intensity of poverty, even after controlling for all other variables in the model. In addition, we find that forest income was the second largest contributor to overall income inequality and had a large marginal effect on it among local households. A policy implication here is that increasing the access of the poor to forest resources and improving their efficiency in forest management could have a substantial effect on income, poverty and inequality in the study area.

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  • Nguyen, Thanh Viet & Tran, Tuyen Quang, 2018. "Forestland and rural household livelihoods in the North Central Provinces, Vietnam," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 10-19.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:79:y:2018:i:c:p:10-19
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.07.046
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    9. Manh Hung Do & Trung Thanh Nguyen & Ulrike Grote, 2022. "Is land consolidation policy a solution for rice production and agricultural transformation in Vietnam?," TVSEP Working Papers wp-028, Leibniz Universitaet Hannover, Institute of Development and Agricultural Economics, Project TVSEP.
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    13. Van Hoang, Cuong & Quang Tran, Tuyen & Hai Thi Nguyen, Yen & Duc Nguyen, Kien, 2019. "Is landholding a potential barrier to adopting profitable livelihoods in the Mekong Delta region in Vietnam ?," MPRA Paper 95936, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 10 Feb 2019.
    14. Hien Nguyen & Tinh Doan & Tuyen Quang Tran, 2020. "The effect of various income sources on income inequality: a comparison across ethnic groups in Vietnam," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 813-834, February.
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    16. Pham Bao Duong & Pham Tien Thanh & Tihomir Ancev, 2021. "Impacts of off‐farm employment on welfare, food security and poverty: Evidence from rural Vietnam," International Journal of Social Welfare, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 84-96, January.
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    18. Qing Yang & Yan Song & Yinying Cai, 2020. "Blending Bottom-Up and Top-Down Urban Village Redevelopment Modes: Comparing Multidimensional Welfare Changes of Resettled Households in Wuhan, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-23, September.
    19. Hoang Van, Cuong Van & Tran Quang, Tuyen & Nguyen Thi, Yen & Lan Nguyen, Thanh, 2019. "A propensity score matching analysis of the relationship between forest resources and household welfare in Vietnam," MPRA Paper 100105, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 28 Apr 2020.
    20. Sadeghi, Azin & Zhunusova, Eliza & Günter, Sven & Dieter, Matthias, 2023. "Households' livelihood in restricted forest landscapes: What is the impact of contextual factors?," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Forestland; Forest income; Fractional probit; Gini decomposition; Shortfall;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I - Health, Education, and Welfare
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

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