Forestland and household welfares in North Central Provinces, Vietnam

This paper investigates the effects of forestland on household income, poverty and inequality among households in Vietnam’s poorest rural districts, the North Central Provinces, using data from the Quantitative Socio-Economic Survey for Emission Reduction-Program (ERP) Provinces Areas [QSESERPA]. Local people are extremely poor, with 54% living below the poverty line. Forest income constitutes about 17% of their total income; only wage income (37%) ranks higher. Surprisingly, those better off depend on forest income more than the poor do. Such income is comprised mainly of non-timber forest plants (77%), followed by timber products (18%). Our micro-econometric analysis indicates that gaining access to more forestland would increase household per capita income and reduce the incidence and intensity of poverty, even after controlling for all other variables in the model. In addition, we find that forest income was the second largest contributor to overall income inequality and had the largest marginal effect on it. A policy implication here is that increasing the access of the poor to forest resources and improving their efficiency in forest management could have a substantial effect on income, poverty and inequality in the study area