Dependency of rural communities on non-timber forest products in the dry lands of southern Africa: A case of Mukwe Constituency, Kavango East Region, Namibia

This paper examines the relationship between socio-economic and demographic factors and Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) dependency among the rural communities of the Mukwe Constituency, Kavango East Region, Namibia. The study employed interviews of households using semi-structured questionnaires and personal observations during July 2019 covering 102 respondents. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Chi-Square (X2) to test the association between socio-economic and demographic factors with NTFPs dependency. Results showed that wild-fruits, mushroom, honey-bees, mopane worms, insects, medicinal plants, wild meat, ropes, reeds, thatching grasses and devil's claw were the NTFPs prevalent in the study area. The results further showed that 71 % of the respondents were reliant on NTFPs for their diverse livelihoods. The Chi-square revealed no significant association between age, gender, marital status, number of people in the households and NTFPs dependency (P>0.05). However, a significant association was found between NTFPs reliance and occupation, number of years in the village, number of people employed in the household, highest qualification and employment status (P<0.05). The intra-community differentiation in the reliance on NTFPs, as revealed in this study, enables more effective targeting of forest management interventions and informs efforts to reconcile the goals of poverty reduction and sustainable forest management in Namibia and other countries with similar socio-economic and environmental conditions.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC

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