Socio-Economic Impacts of Livelihood from Fuelwood and Timber Consumption on the Sustainability of Forest Environment: Evidence from Basho Valley, Baltistan, Pakistan

Saif Ullah, Rana Shahzad Noor, Ali Abid, Richard K. Mendako, Muhammad Mohsin Waqas, Adnan Noor Shah and Gang Tian
Additional contact information
Saif Ullah: College of Economics & Management, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
Rana Shahzad Noor: Department of Agriculture, Biological, Environment and Energy Engineering, College of Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China
Ali Abid: College of Economics & Management, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
Richard K. Mendako: College of Economics & Management, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
Muhammad Mohsin Waqas: Department of Agricultural Engineering, Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology, Rahim Yar Khan 64200, Pakistan
Adnan Noor Shah: Department of Agricultural Engineering, Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology, Rahim Yar Khan 64200, Pakistan
Gang Tian: College of Economics & Management, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China

Agriculture, 2021, vol. 11, issue 7, 1-20

Abstract: Forests across the world are considered to be a huge socio-economic and environmental benefit to host and adjacent communities. This study focuses on assessing the impacts of fuelwood and timber consumption on the livelihood of households in the Baltistan region in Pakistan. Primary and secondary sources of data were employed for the study. The primary sources involved the use of questionnaire survey and interview while the secondary sources involved the use of documented information in textbooks and internet materials. The study revealed that 82% of the people within the region were involved in agricultural activities, 71% depended on the extraction of forest resources for their livelihood, while 18% depended on off-farm activities for their livelihood. The study also observed that among the number that depended on forest resources for their livelihood, 59% were involved in the extraction of non-timber forest products while 41% were involved in the extraction of timber forest resources. The study further revealed that there was no significant difference in the level of benefits from the forest across the seven districts under investigation with a chi square value. The volume of forest products extraction was found to be high closest to the forest and to be low with increasing distance from the communities. The major benefits from the forest range were due to employment that increases the individual and family income. Forest also helps to control erosion and enhances aesthetic beautification and temperature regulation. The research suggests that the policy makers must provide a sustainable solution to reduce the overexploitation of the forest resources by providing better alternative earning resources to the resident communities.

Keywords: fuelwood; timber environment; deforestation; socio-economic; livelihood; Gilgit Baltistan; Pakistan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/11/7/596/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/11/7/596/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:11:y:2021:i:7:p:596-:d:583458

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().