Abstract

This study was aimed at examining the contribution of forest products to rural livelihoods and the socio-economic factors that influence household forest dependence in the Luki Biosphere Reserve. A structured questionnaire poll of 193 households randomly chosen from two enclaves in the Luki Biosphere Reserve, and focus group discussions were used to gather the data. For data analysis, a binary logistic regression model was used. The study revealed a substantial contribution of forest products to household livelihood based on household wealth strata and the gender of the household head. The contribution of forest income has been found to be higher for poor households than to other wealth categories, although their mean income from forest was low. However, the present research further revealed that household forest dependence was significantly determined by socioeconomic factors such as length of residency, age, sex, education, employment and household size. Compared to their elderly counterparts, the youth were probably more dependent on forest products. Therefore, there should be increased capacity-building efforts among the young people to enable them enlighten the local communities about the need for sustainable forest management. Meanwhile, highly educated people were observed to be less dependent on forests. The findings of this research provides empirical evidence from the Mayombe tropical forest, thus contributing to the growth of knowledge on the impact of socioeconomic factors on the household dependence on forest resources, especially in the tropical forest of the Democratic Republic of Congo where the complexity of the relationship between local communities and their environment is still being studied.

中文翻译：

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刚果民主共和国卢基生物圈保护区家庭对森林资源的依赖

摘要

本研究旨在研究森林产品对农村生计的贡献以及影响卢基生物圈保护区家庭森林依赖的社会经济因素。对从卢基生物圈保护区的两个飞地中随机选择的 193 个家庭进行了结构化问卷调查，并通过焦点小组讨论来收集数据。对于数据分析，使用二元逻辑回归模型。该研究根据家庭财富阶层和户主性别揭示了林产品对家庭生计的重大贡献。人们发现，尽管贫困家庭来自森林的平均收入较低，但森林收入的贡献高于其他财富类别。然而，目前的研究进一步表明，家庭森林依赖很大程度上取决于社会经济因素，如居住时间、年龄、性别、教育、就业和家庭规模。与老年人相比，年轻人可能更依赖林产品。因此，应加强年轻人的能力建设，使他们能够启发当地社区可持续森林管理的必要性。与此同时，受过高等教育的人对森林的依赖程度较低。这项研究的结果提供了来自马永贝热带森林的经验证据，从而有助于增加关于社会经济因素对家庭对森林资源依赖的影响的认识，特别是在刚果民主共和国的热带森林，那里的森林资源的复杂性当地社区与其环境之间的关系仍在研究中。