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Welfare Implications of Community Forest Plantations in Developing Countries: The Orissa Social Forestry Project
Author(s) -
Köhlin Gunnar,
Amacher Gregory S.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
american journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.949
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1467-8276
pISSN - 0002-9092
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8276.2005.00774.x
Subject(s) - productivity , welfare , community forestry , developing country , production (economics) , economics , natural resource economics , marginal value , business , forestry , geography , forest management , economic growth , market economy , macroeconomics , microeconomics
Community forest plantations are a common intervention in developing countries. We use household and remote sensing data from Orissa, India, to estimate welfare effects of community forest plantations, in terms of the value of decreased collection times plantations afford users. A selection model, accounting for possible jointness in site location and productivity, is used to estimate collection production functions for different household labor categories in natural and community forests. Two measures of an opportunity cost of time are used to determine welfare effects of time saved due to community forests. We find access to community forests is important to marginal productivity of different labor categories, but to different degrees, highlighting the need to disaggregate household data when analyzing these interventions. We also find substantial welfare improvements from time savings for many households and villages.