Vital Forest Graphics

Forest cover in relation to poverty, Madagascar

Ramena

Antsiranana

Plentiful forest, low poverty Scarce forest, high poverty Scarce forest, low poverty

Ambanja

Plentiful forest, high poverty

ANTS I RANANA

Sambava

Source: The World Bank, 2004.

Antalaha

7SLU[PM\S MVYLZ[ OPNO WV]LY[` :JHYJL MVYLZ[ OPNO WV]LY[`

7SLU[PM\S MVYLZ[ SV^ WV]LY[` :JHYJL MVYLZ[ SV^ WV]LY[`

Mahajanga

Mananara

MAHA J ANGA

TOAMAS I NA

ential treatment to influential compa- nies and organizations and promotes corruption. In Honduras, where local communities cannot gain secure rights to the forests in which they live while common, systematic and high-level corruption has characterized the tim- ber industry (Larson and Ribot 2007). There is thus scope for increasing the contribution of forests to poverty pre- vention and reduction. Building upon the emerging evi- dence of the absolute and relative importance of forests and forest prod- ucts to livelihoods, governments and other development bodies should take action to: make policy reforms in nego- tiation with small-scale forest users in order to create conducive production conditions, including secure owner- ship and use rights; revise legislation in order to remove bias against house- hold-level producers and support small-scale commercial units, includ- ing community-based forestry. Such initiatives would allow households to actively use forests, enabling them to build up their assets and improve their livelihoods.

Fenoarivo

Atsinanana

Ambatondrazaka

Toamasina

ANTANANAR I VO

ANTANANARIVO

Mahanoro

Antsirabe

Mananjary

Morondava

Fianarantsoa

F I ANARANTSOA

Ambalavao

TOL I ARA

Manakara

Toliara

Amboasary

Tolanaro

There are also international initiatives aimed at improving our understand- ing of the relation between forests and livelihoods and the impact of policies on such relations, including the Pov- erty and Environment Network, the Programme on Forests and the Inter- national Forestry Resources and Insti- tutions research programme.

Being able to not only harvest forest products but also to transport and sell such products is important for hun- dreds of thousands of households in order to fully realise the benefits of the forest. However, legislation often dis- criminates against small forest users, typically by heavily regulating their access rights. It also often gives prefer-

See also pages 14, 32, 52

VITAL FOREST GRAPHICS 17