There is a new and increasing emphasis on poverty alleviation and livelihoods improvement in forestry, representing both a challenge and an opportunity. This paper briefly reviews the evolution of the ‘livelihoods’ issue, analyses the concept of ‘poverty alleviation’ and discusses means...

Impact assessment of individual research activities have existed in the 15 international research centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) for many years. In 1995, however, the members of the CGIAR decided to give much stronger emphasis to impact...

This article challenges the pervasive view that commercialisation of non-timber forest products can (easily) achieve ecosystem and species conservation as well as improving livelihoods. Following a brief review of who and what is involved, it focuses on the main ecological and livelihood risks...

Quarterly socioeconomic data from 240 households are used to study the links between forest-related income and rural livelihoods in southern China. Results show average forest-related income shares of 31.5%, which was predominantly derived from cultivated non-timber sources. Forest-related...

The study uses a novel method to investigate the role of forest proximity, market remoteness, and caste in determining household income, especially forest income, in an underdeveloped region of India. A high (50%) proportion of total income is earned in cash. Forest products contribute...