Non-timber forest products income and inequality status for communities around West Usambara Mountain Forests in Tanzania

Despite the importance of forests to the communities in rural Tanzania, information is scarce regarding the contribution of non-timber forest products to household incomes. Based on the variation in institutional regimes and income categories, we aimed to assess the contribution of NTFPs to the households in rural communities of West Usambara, comparing those households located around state and community managed forests. We randomly sampled 159 households from four villages at the fringes of jointly managed forests and community managed forests in the West Usambara Mountains. Household income accounting and cluster analysis were employed, in order to categorize households into income groups based on their total income. We observed a significantly higher amount of NTFPs income for households located around the state than the community managed forest, and high-income households had high absolute but lower relative NTFPs income. The NTFPs proved to be crucial in poverty and inequality aspects of the low-income households. Our findings imply that NTFPs are important income sources in rural communities and insightful assessment is needed, within a particular context, to understand the local situation. Interventions that improve the conservation of forests and NTFP flows to rural communities are important to the rural development agenda.