Managing the Miombo Woodlands of Southern Africa Policies, incentives and options
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4.1Structure of cash incomePerhaps the most significant attribute of non-farm sources of income is their high contribution to household cash generation. Rural households are highly constrained in terms of cash for basic consumption expenditure as well as for meeting vital commitments such as school fees, health costs and transport. More than 50% of income from forest products is in cash and this plays a vital role in meeting various expenses. Also important is the timing of forest income (Arnold and Townson 1999), coming mostly at times when households have little else from other highly seasonal activities like cropping. Similarly wage income is mostly in cash although cases of people being paid in kind are not uncommon. Most of the crop produced (69%) goes to meeting household subsistence requirements with very limited marketed surplus. Only 30% of household income is in cash and given the low livestock numbers and the limited number of households who depend on them, this is hardly significant for the average household. Again these observations point to central role that is played by forest income and other non-farm activities undertaken by rural households. 4.2Income comparisons across sitesComparing the two study sites reveal important differences in both the amounts and composition of household income (Table 5). Perhaps the similarity in agro-ecology and cultural background among communities in these study sites explain the similar patterns observed on cropping. No significant differences are observed across the two districts with respect to crop income. However analysis of cash income reveals that villages in Mufulira are able to convert more of their crop output to cash given the ease with which they can access markets, especially in nearby urban centers. Households in Nkhulwashi village in remote Kabompo district could only convert just 3% of their crop output to cash while up to 52% of crop output is sold in Sosala village in Mufulira district. Similar trends are also observed with respect to livestock income in the two districts. The most notable differences between the two districts are with respect to processed forest products. Mufulira has significantly higher incomes, largely due to the vibrant charcoal processing and sale in surrounding urban centers. Villages in Kabompo are not significantly involved with processing of forest products due to remoteness, limiting such activities to production of locally use tools, utensils and mats. Most of these never reach external markets and sales are limited to local transactions. The abundance of opportunities for casual work in Mufulira due to vibrant economic activity in nearby urban centres and commercial farms explains the big differences in wage income between these two districts. In Kabompo, casual jobs are limited to small and opportunistic inter-household labour exchanges that hardly pay significant amounts. An interesting scenario is the case of unprocessed forest products. Despite being remote from urban markets households in Kabompo earned significantly higher income from unprocessed forest products. Even their cash earnings from these products (69%) are much higher than for Mufulira (39%). The only explanation to this is the exceptional effort that has been put in developing the marketing of honey in Kabompo and other honey producing areas, perhaps more than what has happened with other products. Honey from these villages is being exported to lucrative organic markets, bringing high incentives to local producers. Organization and skills among bee-keepers has also been enhanced through training and technical support from government and various development agencies. This case demonstrates the benefits of opening up opportunities for remote communities especially through marketing development for products with high economic potential. Although a few more such forest products such as mushroom and wild fruits are abundant in both districts, no such organization and market development has occurred. It’s only in easily accessible locations like Mufulira where such poorly supported products can reach lucrative urban markets but again incomes are dampened by lack of organized marketing and product development. Whether there is potential for these other products to achieve similar success will depend on efforts to tackle bottlenecks in product development and marketing. An interesting example is the case of timber in Kabompo. Despite the high value of indigenous timber species in the area, only 3% of the households reported income from timber. Key among the difficulties in exploiting timber is the poorly organized marketing arrangements. Only individuals with substantial cash amounts can afford to hire transport to ferry timber to markets. Complaints of exploitation by the sophisticated timber buyers in urban areas are also widespread. Realizing the loopholes, well-connected outsiders are now dominating timber exploitation in Kabompo, often operating illegally. The result is not only the loss of income for local resource users but also hastened opening up of local forests that compromise important local livelihood activities like honey production. Overall, households in Kabompo are severely disadvantaged by the poor linkages with markets. They earn only about half as much income, and about 3 times less cash as their counterparts in Mufulira. Households in Mufulira also enjoy more diversified cash income sources, and are perhaps less susceptible to fluctuations in individual livelihood sectors. Under both scenerios, forest products contribute the highest income share and also contribute over 50% of all cash income. 5Discussion and conclusionThe results presented about raise an intriguing question whether rural households are really farming households given the exceptionally high dependency on non-farm sectors such as forest collection and off-farm activities, compared to conventional farming sectors. Based on the income composition, it is clear that income from forest products and other non-farm activities can no longer continue to be regarded as ‘complementary’ sectors. Rather these sectors should be recognized as a central part of local economies, needing financial, technical and institutional support to reach its potential. This perhaps is most critical for poor and marginalized communities who lack the assets and expertise that are required for most forms of profitable agriculture. Although the forestry sector has fewer barriers to entry resulting in a larger proportion of households being able to benefit, taking its contribution beyond just providing safety nets will require sustained efforts in product and market development. Fortunately remote communities seem to benefit more from such developments as their resources are under less threat from population pressure and other forms of economic expansion.
The overall conclusion from the results of this study is that forest products are central to livelihoods, rather than just being secondary to the farming sector. With improved local organization and support for product and market development, some forest products have potential to turn around the fortunes of remote communities who have limited economic opportunities due to lack of assets, limited expertise and are poorly linked with markets. In situations where local resources remain largely undeveloped and inaccessible to the local population, this creates loopholes for external expropriation by well connected individuals who often have more information on markets and institutional shortcomings. Despite these prospects, remote communities remain relatively poor compared to more accessible locations and various facets of their livelihoods are undermined as a result. Further more conditions that enable households to sustain the few potentially lucrative activities are hardly in place in both study areas. It is not easy to see how households could continue to depend on forest resources for example. Continued access to these resources is highly threatened by a number of factors that include high rates of deforestation, elite capture of high value resources, and poorly organized marketing for most products. In Mufulira, the ever-growing demand for charcoal as urban populations continue to grow present a major threat to sustainable forest management. Lack of well managed cutting regimes and other ingenious approaches to ensuring regeneration of local forests paints a bleak picture of the charcoal making enterprises. The punitive government license fees for charcoal production has also encouraged illegal extraction and severely undermined profitability. This has resulted in a highly secretive industry that is characterized by suspicion, uncertainty, corruption and very high transaction costs. Forestry officials hardly have the capacity to monitor activities in charcoal production and yet there are no incentives for self-monitoring and regulation. The result is a bustling underground economy whose impacts can be seen on forest cover. Unless the production of charcoal is better organized, through planned cutting regimes, mutually agreed licensing fee structures and incentives for local resource users to manage local forests, local forests will continue to disappear without much benefit to local populations. Value-adding initiatives such as improved packaging would also improve incomes for local households but this won’t happen unless the “illegal” nature of charcoal production and marketing is addressed. Marketing problems seem to cut across the entire spectrum of forest products in both study sites and unfortunately no concrete solutions are available to overcome the constraints. Community consultations in Kabompo revealed that despite substantial improvements over the years, huge volumes of high quality organic honey still goes to waste each year as the marketing system fails to cope with rising production levels. In this area honey production goes back in history and has strong cultural ties. With some training and organization from development agencies, the area is now among the leading producers of export quality honey. Sadly the benefits are difficult to see locally as marketing bottlenecks and reports of producer exploitation by buyers remain major constraints. Some households have even stopped managing their beehives due to frustration with marketing problems. The foregone benefits for these households are huge and similarly incentives for households to manage local forests for honey production are negatively influence. Incidences of forest fires are now said to be on the increase and practices like early burning which used to protect the forest are reported to be on the decline. Coupled with these negative trends is also the threat from outside. For a long time the forests in Kabompo have been intact due to low population pressure and very little external influence on local resource use. This is about to change. Recent improvements in the road network have resulted in increased extraction of high value forest products like timber. Unfortunately very few local people (mostly the better off) have benefited from such activities as they require high amounts of capital, better connections and information on urban markets where these products are sold. In most cases timber extraction is being done illegally and the forestry department lacks the capacity to deal with the problem. The involvement of influential people also makes it highly unlikely that government institutions can take decisive action against the offenders. Ironically, well-meaning development initiatives like improving the road network may actually undermine local livelihoods by opening them up to external pressure. Unless these communities are empowered to deal with external threats and also to take advantage of emerging opportunities, infrastructural development may benefit external players at the expense of local populations. Currently it is difficult to envisage how remote communities like those in Kabompo will benefit significantly from improved infrastructure unless deliberate action is taken to help them confront associated challenges. Local resource users are not oblivious to threats on keys aspects of their livelihoods and constantly refer to the dire status of their livelihood system. In many cases they indicate that these fears encourage a general atmosphere of pessimism among local communities and the lack of faith in local actions. It is a reality that local households will continue to depend heavily on natural resources such as forests for a long time to come and creative solutions are required to sustain the flow of products and services from these resources and also to elevate their contribution to local incomes. Development strategies to transform people’s lives under these circumstances will need to recognize the central role of these resources, and identify development options for enhancing wider aspects of local livelihoods without undermining these vital elements of the system. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||