Introduction

Globally, millions of indigenous people and local communities who reside in or nearby forest ecosystems heavily interact with and draw their livelihoods from forests. Depending on the nature of the forest ecosystems, communities over time have developed diverse strategies of managing and utilising various components of forests ecosystems to draw their livelihoods. These include both extractive and non-extractive use. In recent decades with the increasing interface with the market, many the management and use practices are shaped by market demand and communities are moving away from subsistence to commercial use. At the same time, we have observed innovations in forest policies, governance and institutional arrangements that shape the community’s access to and control over resources and benefits. Many of these innovations are aimed at to recognize and appreciating ecosystem services of forests which are used to further incentivise communities for better conservation. This module presents key livelihoods types, arrangements that shape these livelihoods through defining forest-people relations and also describes some emerging ways of linking ecosystem services with improved livelihoods.

Outcomes

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• Enumerate the types of forest-based community livelihoods.
• Identify and explain how the policy, governance and institutional arrangements shape livelihoods outcomes.
• Explain how the ecosystem service approach help improve livelihoods benefits while improving forest.
• Enumerate the contribution of ecosystem services to the livelihoods of indigenous people and local communities in the context of tropical forests.