Improved household living standards can restore dry tropical forests

Despite multiple approaches over the last several decades to harmonize
conservation and development goals in the tropics, forest-depende­­­­­­nt
households remain the poorest in the world. Durable housing and
alternatives to fuelwood for cooking are critical needs to reduce
multi-dimensional poverty. These improvements also potentially reduce
pressure on forests and alleviate forest degradation. We test this
possibility in dry tropical forests of the Central Indian Highlands where
tribal and other marginalized populations rely on forests for energy,
construction materials, and other livelihood needs. Based on a
remotely-sensed measure of forest degradation and a 5000 household survey
of forest use, we use machine learning (causal forests) and other
statistical methods to quantify treatment effects of two improved living
standards – alternatives to fuelwood for cooking and non-forest based
housing material - on forest degradation in 1, 2, and 5 km buffers around
500 villages. Both improved living standards had significant treatment
effects (-0.030±0.078, -0.030±0.023, 95% CI) respectively, with negative
values indicating less forest degradation, within 1 km buffers around
villages. Treatment effects were lower with increasing distance from
villages. Results suggest that improved living standards can both reduce
forest degradation and alleviate poverty. Forest restoration efforts can
target improved living standards for local communities without conflicts
over land tenure or taking land out of production to plant trees.