Background
The world’s poorest people are mostly located in rural areas, particularly the remote forested areas of developing countries. They are usually marginalized groups like indigenous people, women and landless or frontier farmers. These groups are particularly dependent on forests since they live in remote capital-poor areas with limited access to markets.
Over the last decade, much attention has been given to trying to increase incomes and employment opportunities for the rural poor from forests and forest products. These include income opportunities through the development of improved markets and technologies for non-timber forest products (NTFPs), and more recently, through better access to benefits from timber harvesting and payment for environmental services.
There are no quick answers to reducing the poverty of forest communities. Sustainable long-term solutions will come from continued support to the rural poor. Attempts are now being made such as through this research program to generate and provide targeted information to development projects, policy makers and donor agencies to increase the effectiveness of development projects to help the rural poor benefit from forestry activities.
This research is a technical assistance grant (TAG) provided by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) to conduct research that would support more resilient livelihoods for poor and socially disadvantaged women and ethnic minorities dependent on forest resources in Asia.