BACKGROUND NOTE FOR THE

WORLD DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2013

Sustainable Management of
Trees, Reduction in Forest
Degradation, and Job
Creation for the Poor

Klas Sander

Peter Dewees

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Better land and forest management, and associated creation of jobs, can sometimes be a green
outcome of growth strategies which are not intentionally driven by a green agenda. There is
increasing evidence, for example, that land use intensification follows a predictable path, first
resulting in deforestation and degradation, then landscape restoration and recovery through
intensive land management efforts. Some observers (e.g. Patel et al 1995) have even suggested
an „Environmental Kuznets Curve‟1 where higher incomes and robust markets create strong
incentives for better land management, including reforestation, a view which is consistent with
longstanding theories of agricultural land intensification (Boserup 1965). Barbier and Bergeron
(1998) also find a U-shaped structure for the relationship between population pressure and
natural resource conditions. They conclude that—in the long term—population pressure is likely
to lead to continuing improvement in the condition of natural resources. This conclusion can be
extended by arguing that population pressure eventually leads to market integration, economic
development, and lower discounting constraints. So, differential labor markets account for why
farmers sometimes choose to plant trees over other land uses (Dewees 1993). As expanding labor
markets increasingly create opportunities for urban employment, the shift to labor extensive land
uses, such as tree planting and forest management, becomes much stronger.

Land and labor markets will play an increasingly important role in determining how future
demands for forest products are met, with consequent impacts on land use. For example,
charcoal markets alone already account for an estimated 7 million jobs in Africa, and the
economic value of the industry exceeds $8 billion. By 2030, when about 1 billion people are
expected to depend on woodfuels in this region, these numbers are estimated to increase to
US$12 billion in market volume offering employment to 12 million people (World Bank 2011).
The trend toward relying increasingly on wood-based energy sources is expected to accelerate as
governments globally are phasing out fossil-fuel subsidies and introducing cost-recovery
principles. By necessity, forest and tree cover in Africa will have to be brought under better
management in response to growing market demands. The potential for shifting from
unsustainable land clearing operations to sustainable forest management practices is significant
(Wily and Mbaya 2001), but will increasingly depend on resolving issues of rights over land,
trees and forests at the local level, and tackling daunting challenges of forest governance.

Poor people especially benefit from the use of forests and trees, both in an indirect, subsistence
manner and from the commercialization of wood products. In rural areas, where opportunities for
cash income are limited, employment opportunities associated with the production and use of
forests and forest products is an important component of the economic portfolio of many
households. Poor people can work as laborers for forest owners or produce wood and other forest
products with their own means, through woodlots, agroforestry systems, and forest gardens.

At the farm level, tree resources outside of closed forests are also becoming increasingly
important to satisfy demand for timber, wood fuels, and non-wood forest products. The option of
locally managed reforestation and regeneration of degraded landscapes offers a particular
opportunity for poor people to benefit from sustainable forest and tree management. In 2011, for
example, the Global Partnership for Forest and Landscape Restoration

1
For further studies analyzing the relationship between environmental quality and economic growth see also
Panayotou 2000; Panayotou, Peterson et al. 2000; Bhattarai and Hammig 2001; Culas and Dutta 2002; Yandle,
Vijayaraghavan et al. 2002.

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(www.ideastransformlandscapes.org) estimated that globally about two billion hectares of the

world's deforested and degraded landscapes offer potential for restoration through tree planting
and management initiatives, and that restoring less than 10 percent of this area would be worth
around $85 billion per year to the economy in new jobs and other outcomes.

Farmer managed natural regeneration can also be a low cost/no cost option for increasing
agricultural productivity. In Niger, for example, rules regulating the use of trees on farms were
revised in 1993 giving farmers a freer hand and stronger incentives to manage these resources.
After more than two decades, the results have been phenomenal, with over five million hectares
of agricultural land under farming systems which incorporate trees, benefitting 4.5 million
people, boosting productivity, and creating thousands of rural jobs. A range of species have
naturally regenerated with farmer encouragement, such as Faidherbia albida, and these have
improved soil fertility, and provided fodder, wood, and fuel, as well as fruits and food. In
aggregate, these have diversified farmers‟ incomes and increased resilience at the household
level in the event of drought. Benefits associated with increased tree cover have increased
sorghum yields by as much as 85 percent in some areas, and millet yields by as much as 50
percent, with significant impacts on rural employment creation (Larwanou and Reij 2011).

In a green economy, it is expected that future employment opportunities in the forestry sector
will further increase due to an increased use of wood and other forest products in industrial
production and manufacturing processes, such as building construction, interior design, furniture,
and the further substitution of petrochemical for wood based products. With the largest growth
rates currently being found in low- and middle-income countries, it is further expected that jobs
in the forestry sector will not only continue to grow, but they will be increasingly formalized as
well. In this regard, a key characteristic of the forestry sector is its largely localized production,
processing, and consumption structure, which will further benefit the demand for domestic
employment.

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References

Barbier, B. and G. Bergeron. 1998. "Natural resource management in the hillsides of Honduras:
bioeconomic modeling at the micro-watershed level." EPTD Discussion Paper No.32,
IFPRI, Washington D.C.

Bhattarai, M. and M. Hammig.2001. "Institutions and the Environmental Kuznets Curve for
deforestation: a crosscountry analysis for Latin America, Africa, and Asia." World
Development 29(6): 995-1010.

Boserup, Ester. 1965. The Conditions of Agricultural Growth: The Economics of Agrarian
Change under Population Pressure. New York: Aldine Publishing Company

Culas, R. and D. Dutta. 2002. "The underlying causes of deforestation and the Environmental
Kuznets Curve: A cross-country analysis." Paper submitted for the Econometric Society
of Australasia Meeting (ESAM02), Brisbane, Australia.

Dewees, P. 1993. Trees, Land and Labor, Environment Department Technical Paper No.4.
World Bank, Washington, D.C.

Larwanou, M., and C. Reij. 2011. Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration in Niger: A Key to
Environmental Stability, Agricultural Intensification, and Diversification. In, Bationo, A.,

Panayotou, T. 2000. Economic growth and the environment, Center for International
Development at Harvard University.

Panayotou, T., A. Peterson, et al. 2000. "Is the Environmental Kuznets Kurve driven by
structural change? - what extended time series may imply for developing countries."
CAER Discussion paper No.80, August 2000, Harvard Institute for International
Development.

Patel, S. H., Pinckney, T.C. and Jaeger, W.K. 1995. Smallholder Wood Production and
Population Pressure in East Africa: Evidence of an Environmental Kuznets Curve? Land
Economics 71(4): 516-530.

Wily, L., and S. Mbaya. 2001. Land, people, and forests in eastern and southern Africa at the
beginning of the 21st century: the impact of land relations on the role of communities in
forest future. Nairobi, IUCN-EARO.

World Bank. 2011. Wood-based biomass energy development for Sub-Saharan Africa—Issues
and approaches. Africa Renewable Energy Access Program (AFREA), ESMAP, The
World Bank 2011

Yandle, B., M. Vijayaraghavan, et al. 2002. “The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC)—a
primer.” PERC Research Study 02-1.