Economic crisis, small farmer well-being, and forest cover change in Indonesia

Field research was conducted on 1,050 Indonesian households to understand t he effects of the Asian economic crisis on the well-being of small farmers outside of Java and on their forest-clearing practices. The main findings a re: (a) most farmers perceived themselves as worse off during the crisis th an before, challenging the claim that farmers with export income would be b etter off and (b) forest clearing by farmers increased significantly during the crisis to expand rubber holdings and other tree crops, with the aim of increasing future income security. Among the policy lessons are that crop diversification and targeted aid can minimize impoverishment and avert incr eased forest clearing following macroeconomic destabilization. (C) 2001 Els evier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.