IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0043055.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effects of Processing Non-Timber Forest Products and Trade Partnerships on People's Well-Being and Forest Conservation in Amazonian Societies

Author

Listed:
  • Carla Morsello
  • Isabel Ruiz-Mallén
  • Maria Dolores Montoya Diaz
  • Victoria Reyes-García

Abstract

This study evaluated whether processing non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and establishing trade partnerships between forest communities and companies enhance the outcomes of NTFP commercialization. In particular, we evaluated whether product processing, partnerships, or their combination was associated with a number of outcomes related to the well-being of forest inhabitants and forest conservation. We based our analyses on ethnographic and quantitative data (i.e., survey and systematic observations) gathered at seven communities from five societies of the Brazilian and Bolivian Amazon. Our results indicated that product processing and partnerships do not represent a silver bullet able to improve the results of NTFP commercialization in terms of well-being and conservation indicators. Compared with cases without interventions, households adopting partnerships but not product processing were most often associated with improved economic proxies of well-being (total income, NTFP income, food consumption and gender equality in income). In comparison, the combination of product processing and partnerships was associated with similar outcomes. Unexpectedly, product processing alone was associated with negative outcomes in the economic indicators of well-being. All of the investigated strategies were associated with less time spent in social and cultural activities. With respect to forest conservation, the strategies that included a partnership with or without processing produced similar results: while household deforestation tended to decrease, the hunting impact increased. Processing alone was also associated with higher levels of hunting, though it did not reduce deforestation. Our results indicate that establishing partnerships may enhance the outcomes of NTFP trade in terms of the financial outcomes of local communities, but practitioners need to use caution when adopting the processing strategy and they need to evaluate potential negative results for indicators of social and cultural activities. With respect to conservation, the three strategies are promising for reducing deforestation, but more pervasive impacts, such as hunting, might increase.

Suggested Citation

  • Carla Morsello & Isabel Ruiz-Mallén & Maria Dolores Montoya Diaz & Victoria Reyes-García, 2012. "The Effects of Processing Non-Timber Forest Products and Trade Partnerships on People's Well-Being and Forest Conservation in Amazonian Societies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(8), pages 1-15, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0043055
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0043055
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0043055
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0043055&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0043055?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gerald E. Shively, 2001. "Agricultural Change, Rural Labor Markets, and Forest Clearing: An Illustrative Case from the Philippines," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 77(2), pages 268-284.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Babigumira, Ronnie & Angelsen, Arild & Buis, Maarten & Bauch, Simone & Sunderland, Terry & Wunder, Sven, 2014. "Forest Clearing in Rural Livelihoods: Household-Level Global-Comparative Evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(S1), pages 67-79.
    2. Veronesi, Marcella & Reutemann, Tim & Zabel, Astrid & Engel, Stefanie, 2015. "Designing REDD+ schemes when forest users are not forest landowners: Evidence from a survey-based experiment in Kenya," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 46-57.
    3. IAN COXHEAD & Sisira Jayasuriya, "undated". "Economic Growth, Development Policy and the Environment in the Philippines," Wisconsin-Madison Agricultural and Applied Economics Staff Papers 430, Wisconsin-Madison Agricultural and Applied Economics Department.
    4. Fisher, Monica G. & Shively, Gerald E. & Buccola, Steven T., 2002. "An Empirical Investigation Of Activity Choice, Labor Allocation, And Forest Use In Southern Malawi," Staff Papers 28616, Purdue University, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    5. Djanibekov, Utkur & Djanibekov, Nodir & Khamzina, Asia, 2012. "CDM afforestation for managing water, energy and rural income nexus in irrigated drylands," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126765, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    6. Monica Fisher & Gerald E. Shively & Steven Buccola, 2005. "Activity Choice, Labor Allocation, and Forest Use in Malawi," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 81(4).
    7. Illukpitiya, Prabodh & Yanagida, John F., 2010. "Farming vs forests: Trade-off between agriculture and the extraction of non-timber forest products," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 1952-1963, August.
    8. Elisabeth Hettig & Jann Lay & Kacana Sipangule, 2016. "Drivers of Households’ Land-Use Decisions: A Critical Review of Micro-Level Studies in Tropical Regions," Land, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-32, October.
    9. Bowman, Maria S. & Amacher, Gregory S. & Merry, Frank D., 2008. "Fire use and prevention by traditional households in the Brazilian Amazon," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 117-130, August.
    10. Rios, Ana R. & Masters, William A. & Shively, Gerald E., 2008. "Linkages between Market Participation and Productivity: Results from a Multi-Country Farm Household Sample," 2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida 6145, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    11. Nguyen, Trung Thanh & Do, Truong Lam & Parvathi, Priyanka & Wossink, Ada & Grote, Ulrike, 2018. "Farm production efficiency and natural forest extraction: Evidence from Cambodia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 480-493.
    12. Rios, Ana R. & Shively, Gerald E. & Masters, William A., 2009. "Farm Productivity and Household Market Participation: Evidence from LSMS Data," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 51031, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    13. Shone, Bryan M. & Caviglia-Harris, Jill L., 2006. "Quantifying and comparing the value of non-timber forest products in the Amazon," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 249-267, June.
    14. Katrina Mullan & Erin Sills & Subhrendu K. Pattanayak & Jill Caviglia-Harris, 2018. "Converting Forests to Farms: The Economic Benefits of Clearing Forests in Agricultural Settlements in the Amazon," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 71(2), pages 427-455, October.
    15. Kemigisha, Esther & Angelsen, Arild & Babweteera, Fred & Mugisha, Johnny, 2022. "Survival- versus opportunity-driven environmental reliance: Evidence from Uganda," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    16. Mazunda, John & Shively, Gerald, 2015. "Measuring the forest and income impacts of forest user group participation under Malawi's Forest Co-management Program," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 262-273.
    17. Unai Pascual & Edward B. Barbier, 2007. "On Price Liberalization, Poverty, and Shifting Cultivation: An Example from Mexico," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 83(2), pages 192-216.
    18. Zelek, Charles & Shively, Gerald E., 2001. "Technical Change, Factor Bias, And Input Adjustments: Panel Data Evidence From The Philippines," 2001 Annual meeting, August 5-8, Chicago, IL 20651, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    19. Zwane, Alix Peterson, 2007. "Does poverty constrain deforestation? Econometric evidence from Peru," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 330-349, September.
    20. Caviglia-Harris, Jill L., 2005. "Cattle Accumulation and Land Use Intensification by Households in the Brazilian Amazon," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 34(2), pages 1-18, October.

    More about this item

    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:plo:pone00:0043055. 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.