People and Forest Interface : Contribution of Liberia’s Forests to Household Incomes, Subsistence, and Resilience
Liberia is one of the most forested countries in West Africa, with more than two thirds of its land surface covered by forest. The National Forest Inventory, conducted by the Liberia Forestry Development Authority in 2018 and 2019, estimates the fo...
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| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/918201599717452297/People-and-Forest-Interface-Contribution-of-Liberia-s-Forests-to-Household-Incomes-Subsistence-and-Resilience http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34438 |
| Summary: | Liberia is one of the most forested
countries in West Africa, with more than two thirds of its
land surface covered by forest. The National Forest
Inventory, conducted by the Liberia Forestry Development
Authority in 2018 and 2019, estimates the forest cover in
Liberia to be 6.69 million hectares which is approximately
69 percent of the total landmass. Liberia’s formal
(measured) forest contribution to the national economy runs
between nine and 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
Forestry is the fourth largest contributor to economy, after
services, agriculture and fisheries, and mining and panning.
According to the 2020 Forest Resources Assessment produced
by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations (FAO), as of 2015, around 39,880 full time
equivalent workers (of which about 35 percent women) were
formally employed by the sector.2 However, the formal sector
is just a small part of the story. Clearly, forest-related
products and environmental services make significant
contributions to the subsistence, incomes, employment and
coping needs of poor rural households (HHs). Yet, in
national income accounting, these contributions are often
ignored, or are only partially measured. This is as true for
Liberia as for many other countries worldwide. Without
detailed data on HH and forest interactions, policy makers
are unable to understand the economic and social
interactions between HHs and forests and the effects these
have on both people and forests. This data-gap was
emphasized in the Liberia Country Forest Note prepared in
2018 and the Liberia National Household Forest Survey (NHFS)
was implemented to close this data gap. Significant
dependence of forest proximate HHs on forests for
subsistence needs and incomes was the main prior assumption
for the survey. |
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