Non-timber Forest Product Income: What Implications for Social Safety-Nets in Afaka Forest Reserve Communities, Kaduna-Nigeria?

Abstract

The analysis of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in social safety-nets context is a paradigm shift to focusing on the demand side of forest products as repository for providing ecological services to society, including food and energy security, medicines, raw materials, and platforms for protecting the cultural heritage as well as leveraging on safety-nets for poverty alleviation in the communities. In this approach, NTFP income forms the basis for constructing the income inequalities for the modelled occupations among the two groups of NTFP collectors, namely; only-NTFP collection, and NTFP collection with other economic activities.