ABSTRACT
Decentralization of forest management has the potential to increase incomes of rural households and reduce poverty in two key ways. First, it can increase the productivity of forests. Second, devolution programs that are augmented with institutional support, such as marketing assistance, may offer price premiums to sellers of forest products and thus directly improve their forest-based incomes. Empirical studies on the environmental, welfare, and distributional impacts of devolution programs are relatively few, though growing, and so far the evidence is mixed. These empirical uncertainties motivate this study, which seeks to measure the impacts of decentralized forest management on rural households' livelihoods. FUG members, supported by experts from Farm Africa/SOS Sahel and local governments, then developed forest management plans that stipulated the rights and duties of FUG members. Forest management plans are implemented by elected management committees made up of a chairperson, deputy chairperson, secretary, cashier, and an at-large member.
