FOOD SECURITY RESEARCH PROJECT The Contribution of Non-Timber Forest Products to Rural Household Income in Zambia

The authors would like to acknowledge the role of the Central Statistics Office in data collection and entry. Margaret Beaver provided substantial contributions to the training of enumerators and data entry personnel. Patricia Johannes provided valuable formatting and editing assistance. The authors acknowledge financial support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) in Lusaka. Any views expressed or remaining errors are solely the responsibility of the authors. Forest products play an important role in supporting rural livelihoods and food security in many developing countries. Pimentel et al. (1997) found that the integrity of forests is vital to world food security, mostly because of the dependence of the poor on forest resources. Studies of the role of forest products in household welfare in Zambia have found that such products are among the top sources of household income in some rural areas. This paper uses statistical analysis to examine the role of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in rural household welfare in Zambia, with two main objectives. First, using rural household survey data, we estimate the share of NTFP income to total household income with the aim of assessing the proportion and distribution of business activities related to NTFPs. Second, we estimate the determinants of rural household participation in the extraction and trade of NTFPs, with an interest in the characteristics of households that are more dependent on forest products for income. This analysis is based on data that were collected in the supplemental survey of the 1999/00 Post-Harvest Survey (PHS) of small and medium scale rural holdings, conducted by the Central Statistical Office (CSO) and Food Security Research Project (FSRP) in 2008. The sampling frame of primary sampling units, or Standard Enumeration Areas (SEAs), was constructed using the results from the 2000 Census of Population and Housing. The sampling frame included all rural SEAs. A sample of 410 SEAs was drawn from a total of 12,789 SEAs from the sampling frame, with the 2000 census of population and housing used as a base. The household was the second stage-sampling unit. Twenty (20) households were sampled from each Sample SEA using systematic random sampling. The total sample size was 8,200. However, due to non-responses, data were collected from 8,094 households. In addition to the agricultural data, the 2008 supplemental PHS collected data on household business activities related to NTFPs, which included the type of …