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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Main Author: World Bank
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2020
Subjects:
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
id okr-10986-34438
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-344382021-09-16T23:54:56Z People and Forest Interface : Contribution of Liberia’s Forests to Household Incomes, Subsistence, and Resilience World Bank FOREST PRODUCTS FOREST MANAGEMENT COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CLIMATE RESILIENCE FOREST SECTOR LIVELIHOODS COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION LAND USE DEFORESTATION FOREST DEGRADATION GENDER 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. 2020-09-15T17:25:48Z 2020-09-15T17:25:48Z 2020-08-21 Report 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 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work Economic & Sector Work :: Other Environmental Study Africa Liberia
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic FOREST PRODUCTS
FOREST MANAGEMENT
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
CLIMATE RESILIENCE
FOREST SECTOR
LIVELIHOODS
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION
LAND USE
DEFORESTATION
FOREST DEGRADATION
GENDER
spellingShingle FOREST PRODUCTS
FOREST MANAGEMENT
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
CLIMATE RESILIENCE
FOREST SECTOR
LIVELIHOODS
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION
LAND USE
DEFORESTATION
FOREST DEGRADATION
GENDER
World Bank
People and Forest Interface : Contribution of Liberia’s Forests to Household Incomes, Subsistence, and Resilience
geographic_facet Africa
Liberia
description 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.
format Report
author World Bank
author_facet World Bank
author_sort World Bank
title People and Forest Interface : Contribution of Liberia’s Forests to Household Incomes, Subsistence, and Resilience
title_short People and Forest Interface : Contribution of Liberia’s Forests to Household Incomes, Subsistence, and Resilience
title_full People and Forest Interface : Contribution of Liberia’s Forests to Household Incomes, Subsistence, and Resilience
title_fullStr People and Forest Interface : Contribution of Liberia’s Forests to Household Incomes, Subsistence, and Resilience
title_full_unstemmed People and Forest Interface : Contribution of Liberia’s Forests to Household Incomes, Subsistence, and Resilience
title_sort people and forest interface : contribution of liberia’s forests to household incomes, subsistence, and resilience
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2020
url 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
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