Differential livelihood impacts of eucalypt and pine plantations on state-owned land

Rigorous evaluations of the socioeconomic impacts of plantation forests on adjacent rural communities are rare. This study investigates whether plantation forests’ impacts on the livelihoods of nearby households depend on the timber species grown and harvested in the plantations. Using a quasi-experimental design and survey data from 811 households near state-owned forest reserves in Uganda, this study compares the impacts of eucalypt plantations (“treated” sites in this analysis) to pine plantations (“untreated” sites) for five household-level outcomes: a multidimensional poverty index, cow ownership, firewood collection, forest clearing and tree planting. This study finds that households near eucalypt plantations own significantly more cows, with weaker evidence that they are more likely to plant trees. The effects of species on multidimensional poverty, firewood collection and forest clearing are all insignificant. These findings suggest that eucalypt plantations in Uganda have had more positive livelihood impacts, and possibly more positive tree-cover effects too, than pine plantations. More generally, they suggest that species choice by plantation owners might help explain the mixed livelihood impacts of plantation forests reported by prior studies.