IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/lauspo/v79y2018icp10-19.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • 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.

Suggested Citation

  • 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
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837718304496
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.07.046?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Foster, James & Greer, Joel & Thorbecke, Erik, 1984. "A Class of Decomposable Poverty Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(3), pages 761-766, May.
    2. Sumon Kumar Bhaumik & Ira N. Gang & Myeong-Su Yun, 2006. "A note on poverty in Kosovo," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(8), pages 1177-1187.
    3. Tran Quang Tuyen, 2015. "Socio-Economic Determinants of Household Income among Ethnic Minorities in the North-West Mountains, Vietnam," Croatian Economic Survey, The Institute of Economics, Zagreb, vol. 17(1), pages 139-159, June.
    4. Tuyen Quang Tran & Son Hong Nguyen & Huong Van Vu & Viet Quoc Nguyen, 2015. "A note on poverty among ethnic minorities in the Northwest region of Vietnam," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(2), pages 268-281, June.
    5. Ben Jann, 2016. "Estimating Lorenz and concentration curves," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 16(4), pages 837-866, December.
    6. Lerman, Robert I & Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 1985. "Income Inequality Effects by Income," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 67(1), pages 151-156, February.
    7. Ravallion, Martin, 1996. "How Well Can Method Substitute for Data? Five Experiments in Poverty Analysis," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 11(2), pages 199-221, August.
    8. Stark, Oded & Taylor, J Edward & Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 1986. "Remittances and Inequality," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 96(383), pages 722-740, September.
    9. World Bank, 2011. "World Development Report 2011 [Rapport sur le développement dans le monde 2011 : Conflits, sécurité et développement - Abrégé]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 4389.
    10. Valerie Kozel, 2014. "Well Begun but Not Yet Done : Progress and Emerging Challenges for Poverty Reduction in Vietnam," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 20074.
    11. Dominique Van De Walle & Dorothyjean Cratty, 2004. "Is the emerging non‐farm market economy the route out of poverty in Vietnam?," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 12(2), pages 237-274, June.
    12. Papke, Leslie E & Wooldridge, Jeffrey M, 1996. "Econometric Methods for Fractional Response Variables with an Application to 401(K) Plan Participation Rates," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(6), pages 619-632, Nov.-Dec..
    13. Thulstrup, Andreas Waaben, 2015. "Livelihood Resilience and Adaptive Capacity: Tracing Changes in Household Access to Capital in Central Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 352-362.
    14. Bui, Tuan & Nguyen, Cuong & Pham, Phuong, 2015. "Poverty among ethnic minorities: transition process, inequality and economic growth," MPRA Paper 68924, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Das, Nimai, 2010. "Incidence of forest income on reduction of inequality: Evidence from forest dependent households in milieu of joint forest management," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 1617-1625, June.
    16. Behera, Bhagirath, 2009. "Explaining the performance of state-community joint forest management in India," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 177-185, November.
    17. Tran Quang Tuyen & Steven Lim & Michael P. Cameron & Vu Van Huong, 2014. "Farmland loss and livelihood outcomes: a microeconometric analysis of household surveys in Vietnam," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 423-444, July.
    18. Wunder, Sven & Angelsen, Arild & Belcher, Brian, 2014. "Forests, Livelihoods, and Conservation: Broadening the Empirical Base," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(S1), pages 1-11.
    19. Angelsen, Arild & Jagger, Pamela & Babigumira, Ronnie & Belcher, Brian & Hogarth, Nicholas J. & Bauch, Simone & Börner, Jan & Smith-Hall, Carsten & Wunder, Sven, 2014. "Environmental Income and Rural Livelihoods: A Global-Comparative Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(S1), pages 12-28.
    20. Christiaensen, Luc & Scott, Christopher & Wodon, Quentin, 2002. "Poverty Measurement and Analysis," MPRA Paper 45362, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Hogarth, Nicholas J. & Belcher, Brian & Campbell, Bruce & Stacey, Natasha, 2013. "The Role of Forest-Related Income in Household Economies and Rural Livelihoods in the Border-Region of Southern China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 111-123.
    22. Ben Jann, 2016. "Estimating Lorenz and concentration curves in Stata," University of Bern Social Sciences Working Papers 15, University of Bern, Department of Social Sciences, revised 27 Oct 2016.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Do, Manh Hung & Nguyen, Trung Thanh & Grote, Ulrike, 2023. "Land consolidation, rice production, and agricultural transformation: Evidence from household panel data for Vietnam," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 157-173.
    2. Hung Van Vu, 2020. "The Impact of Education on Household Income in Rural Vietnam," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-8, February.
    3. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Qu, Jingjing & Li, Aijun & Liu, Xiaohong, 2021. "A new approach for evaluating technology inequality and diffusion barriers: The concept of efficiency Gini coefficient and its application in Chinese provinces," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    4. Cuong Van Hoang & Tuyen Quang Tran & Yen Hai Thi Nguyen & Lan Thanh Nguyen, 2020. "Forest resources and household welfare: Empirical evidence from North Central Vietnam," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 44(4), pages 311-333, November.
    5. Ongolo, Symphorien & Giessen, Lukas & Karsenty, Alain & Tchamba, Martin & Krott, Max, 2021. "Forestland policies and politics in Africa: Recent evidence and new challenges," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    6. Yen H. T. Nguyen & Tuyen Q. Tran & Dung T. Hoang & Thu M. T. Tran & Trung T. Nguyen, 2023. "Land quality, income, and poverty among rural households in the North Central Region, Vietnam," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(2), pages 150-172, June.
    7. Tran, Tuyen Quang & Vu, Huong Van, 2020. "The pro-poor impact of non-crop livelihood activities in rural Vietnam: A panel data quantile regression analysis," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 348-362.
    8. Oliver Schulte & Trung Thanh Nguyen & Ulrike Grote, 2022. "The Effect of Renting in Cropland on Livelihood Choices and Agricultural Commercialization: A Case Study from Rural Vietnam," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(6), pages 2878-2898, December.
    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 for Environmental Economics and World Trade, Project TVSEP.
    10. Tran, Tuyen Quang & Vu, Huong Van, 2019. "Land fragmentation and household income: First evidence from rural Vietnam," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    11. Tuyen Quang Tran & Huong Van Vu, 2021. "The impact of land fragmentation on food security in the North Central Coast, Vietnam," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(2), pages 327-345, May.
    12. Adam, Ismail Abdalla Abuelbashar & Adam, Yahia Omar & Olumeh, Dennis Etemesi & Mithöfer, Dagmar, 2024. "Livelihood strategies, baobab income and income inequality: Evidence from Kordofan and Blue Nile, Sudan," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    13. Quang Tran, Tuyen & Van Vu, Huong, 2019. "The impact of land fragmentation on household income: Evidence from rural Vietnam," MPRA Paper 98171, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2019.
    14. 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.
    15. 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.
    16. Tran, Tuyen & Vu, Huong, 2019. "Heterogeneous effects of livelihood strategies on household well-being: An analysis using unconditional quantile regression with fixed effects," MPRA Paper 103849, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 20 Jan 2020.
    17. 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.
    18. Ngo, Thanh Quang & Luu, Khai Duc & Nguyen, Danh Ngọc & Bui, Thanh Xuan & Van, Sang Nguyen & Nguyen, Ky Tran, 2022. "Effects of Land Quality on Land Use: Farm-level Panel-data Evidence from Viet Nam," AGRIS on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Economics and Management, vol. 14(4), December.
    19. 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.
    20. 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.
    21. 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).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Quang Tran, Tuyen & Viet Nguyen, Thanh, 2018. "Forestland and household welfares in North Central Provinces, Vietnam," MPRA Paper 88823, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 17 Feb 2018.
    2. Quang Tran, Tuyen & Hong Nguyen, Son & Van Vu, Huong & Quoc Nguyen, Viet, 2014. "Determinants of poverty among ethnic minorities in the Northwest region, Vietnam," MPRA Paper 59144, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 01 Oct 2014.
    3. Quang Tran, Tuyen & Anh Tran, Tai & The Tran, Nu & Thi Nguyen, Hai, 2018. "Education and the livelihood of households in the Northwest Region, Vietnam," MPRA Paper 90414, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 17 May 2018.
    4. Begazo Curie, Karin & Mertens, Kewan & Vranken, Liesbet, 2021. "Tenure regimes and remoteness: When does forest income reduce poverty and inequality? A case study from the Peruvian Amazon," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    5. Linh Thuy Nguyen & Christopher Gan & Baiding Hu, 2021. "Why is Ethnic Minority Poverty Severe? The Case of Rural Vietnam," Asian Development Policy Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 9(3), pages 161-179.
    6. Felkner, John S. & Lee, Hyun & Shaikh, Sabina & Kolata, Alan & Binford, Michael, 2022. "The interrelated impacts of credit access, market access and forest proximity on livelihood strategies in Cambodia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    7. López-Feldman, Alejandro, 2014. "Shocks, Income and Wealth: Do They Affect the Extraction of Natural Resources by Rural Households?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(S1), pages 91-100.
    8. 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.
    9. Ntuli, Herbert & Muchapondwa, Edwin, 2017. "Effects of wildlife resources on community welfare in Southern Africa," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 572-583.
    10. Bierkamp, Sina & Nguyen, Trung Thanh & Grote, Ulrike, 2021. "Environmental income and remittances: Evidence from rural central highlands of Vietnam," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    11. Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 2002. "Do we need a separate poverty measurement?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 61-85, March.
    12. Taylor, J. Edward & Mora, Jorge & Adams, Richard H., Jr., 2005. "Remittances, Inequality and Poverty: Evidence from Rural Mexico," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19245, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    13. Londres, Marina & Schmink, Marianne & Börner, Jan & Duchelle, Amy E. & Frey, Gabriel Ponzoni, 2023. "Multidimensional forests: Complexity of forest-based values and livelihoods across Amazonian socio-cultural and geopolitical contexts," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    14. Biswajit Ray & Promita Mukherjee, 2023. "Forest Income and Rural Livelihoods in West Bengal, India," Studies in Microeconomics, , vol. 11(1), pages 10-35, April.
    15. Wahlén, Catherine Benson, 2017. "Opportunities for making the invisible visible: Towards an improved understanding of the economic contributions of NTFPs," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 11-19.
    16. Walelign, Solomon Zena & Jiao, Xi, 2017. "Dynamics of rural livelihoods and environmental reliance: Empirical evidence from Nepal," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 199-209.
    17. 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).
    18. Kwabena Nyarko Addai & John N. Ng’ombe & Omphile Temoso, 2022. "Food Poverty, Vulnerability, and Food Consumption Inequality Among Smallholder Households in Ghana: A Gender-Based Perspective," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(2), pages 661-689, September.
    19. Meyer, Maximilian & Hulke, Carolin & Kamwi, Jonathan & Kolem, Hannah & Börner, Jan, 2022. "Spatially heterogeneous effects of collective action on environmental dependence in Namibia’s Zambezi region," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    20. Shyamsundar, Priya & Ahlroth, Sofia & Kristjanson, Patricia & Onder, Stefanie, 2020. "Supporting pathways to prosperity in forest landscapes – A PRIME framework," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).

    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

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:79:y:2018:i:c:p:10-19. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joice Jiang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/land-use-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.