Food security effects of forest sector participation in rural Liberia

Abstract Forests can help rural households cope with food insecurity challenges in the face of climate change while also sequestering carbon and advancing other sustainability objectives in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). As such, participation in the forestry sector can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially on hunger and food security (SDG 2) in forest rich, but economically poor areas of LMICs. However, analysis of the effects of forest sector participation on food security in such contexts remain limited. Here we estimate the effects of participation in forest-based activities like collection and processing of timber and non-timber forest products (NTFPs) on household food security in Liberia, the most forested country in West Africa. We applied endogenous switching poisson regression to data from 1408 households living in the proximity of forests included in Liberia’s 2019 national household forest survey to estimate the effect of forest sector participation on food security (in terms of reduction in the number of months households reportedly had insufficient food). Results show that forest-sector participation reduced the number of months households had insufficient food by 84% (about 2.7 months). Heterogeneity analyses show that NTFPs affected food security by 80% (about 2.5 months) compared to timber and wood products, which had a 66% effect size (about 2.1 months) on average. Our results provide new, national-scale evidence on the role of forests in enhancing food security in Liberia and suggest the importance of forest sector participation for food security and achieving SDG 2 more generally.