ECONOMICS OF VILLAGE-LEVEL FORESTRY : A METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK; FINAL REPORT

This report enunciates an economic methodological framework for energy project formulation and development, broadening the traditional tools of cost/benefit analysis to fit the complexities of village-level forestry programs (VLFP). The author accordingly considers the project"s investment and benefit levels, distribution of incentives and decision-making, allocation of burdens and outputs, property rights/land tenure relationships, and specific resource scarcities; especially as pertaining to individual evaluations of the risk of project participation. To be economically sound, a VLFP must be financially attractive to investors (on local, private, and governmental levels) and to society as a whole, and be efficient, that is, replicable within reasonable time, financial, and institutional constraints. Government subsidies should at least equal a VLFP"s societal benefits and should also be proportional to the project"s overall contribution to national objectives and to long-term budgetary resources. When quantified in economic terms, these ratios can provide an approximate figure adequate to assess a given project design"s budgetary implications. VLFP"s are to be economically evaluated on both investor and social levels in terms of initial/recurrent inputs and direct/ indirect outputs. Values of all items are identical on both levels except the input of peak-season labor and the indirect output of environmental and soil fertility benefits. After summarizing the information needs for estimating the input/output valuation, the author applies the analytical model to two projects in Mali"s Mopti region to create a community woodlot and to plant trees on individual farmlands. A comparison between the two efforts indicates that woodlots require high commercial output and are less attractive from the investor, social, and project efficiency viewpoints. Appended to the report is a 60-item (1975-81) bibliography in French and English.