Landscapes Forest and Global Change - ESA - Escola Superior ...

Z.L. Urech & J.P. Sorg 2010. Taking into account local people’s livelihood systems for a better management of fragments
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This is comprehensible as timber is tradable much better in villages far from the massif than
near the massif. This existing trade far from the massif can be explained by the increasing
scarcity of wood and the growing population farther away from the massif. Additionally, timber
can be sold to families in other villages which can not walk this far to find wood. Another
reason for the better trade far from the massif is the proximity to markets. If they live near the
massif, farmers have to walk for 6-8 hours to reach the next market to sell their wood. This is
almost impossible because farmers have to carry the wood on their shoulders.
Contrary to the case of timber, the trade of non-timber-forest-products (NTFPs) is not
significantly related to the massif proximity. On the one hand, NTFPs are still available in a
higher amount and better quality in the massif than in the fragments (Fedele 2010), what allows
a better trade for people living near the massif. On the other hand, NTFPs are easier to carry for
long distances thus people living near the massif can walk 8 hours to the next market.
Figure 3: Income generated by NTFP and timber from forested landscapes
From the results presented in Figure 3 we would assume that people far from the massif
perceive forested landscapes more important for income than people living near the massif. But
this is not the case. People living near the massif perceive forested landscapes (including both
categories massif and fragments) not less important than people far from the massif. This can be
seen in Figure 4, which shows the results of the distribution of 100 pebbles according to the
perceived importance of different forested landscapes for income (see 2.3 Scoring exercises).
The results showed no significant difference for the relation between distance and importance of
forested landscapes. Obviously, the quantification of importance by income (Figure 3) does not
reflect the actual perception of the local population (Figure 4). We asked the different groups
for reasons explaining the given importance of forested landscapes, even though the effective
income from forest was not that high. The explanation was that the continuous availability of
forest products was more crucial than the effective income. Products from forested landscapes
are always available and, although to a limited extent, always tradeable. This is a significant
characteristic for crisis and periods of rice shortage. Forest products can not all be destroyed by
cyclones, whereas crops are always in danger.
Nevertheless, Figure 4 points out the increasing importance of fragments (Analysis of variance:
F 3, 18 = 4.01, P = 0.024) and decreasing importance of the massif (Analysis of variance: F 3, 18
= 3.23, P = 0.047) with growing distance between village and massif. These trends go into the
same directions as already shown in Figure 1. While the results in Figure 1 are related to the
importance of forested lands for all different categories of goods and products, Figure 4 is only
related to products that can be sold.
Forest Landscapes and Global Change-New Frontiers in Management, Conservation and Restoration. Proceedings of the IUFRO Landscape Ecology
Working Group International Conference, September 21-27, 2010, Bragança, Portugal. J.C. Azevedo, M. Feliciano, J. Castro & M.A. Pinto (eds.)
2010, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Bragança, Portugal.