Poverty alleviation and tropical forests - What scope for synergies?

This paper explores the "state-of-the-art" of the two-way causal links betw een poverty alleviation and natural tropical forests. Microimpacts of risin g poverty can increase or slow forest loss. At the macrolevel, poverty also has an ambiguous effect, but it is probable that higher income stimulates forest loss by raising demand for agricultural land. The second question is what potential forest-led development has to alleviate a country's poverty , in terms of producer benefits, consumer benefits and economy-wide employm ent. Natural forests widely serve as "safety nets" for the rural poor, but it proves difficult to raise producer benefits significantly. Urban consume r benefits from forest, an important target for pro-poor agricultural innov ation, are limited and seldom favor the poor. Absorption of (poor) unskille d labor is low in forestry, which tends to be capital-intensive. Natural fo rests may thus lack comparative advantage for poverty alleviation. There ar e few "win-win" synergies between natural forests and national poverty redu ction, which may help to explain why the loss of tropical forests is ongoin g. This may have important implications for our understanding of "sustainab le forest development" and for the design of both conservation and poverty- alleviation strategies. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.