Forest People

Nearly 500 million people live in or close to forest. Most forest peoples grow some crops but they still rely on the natural productivity of the forests.

They use many forest products: plant stems, tubers, and fruits provide additional food during hungry seasons or when crops fail; wild animals are hunted for their meat and hides; and the forest provide fodder for livestock, fuel wood and medicines. Coastal mangrove forests nature fish and crustaceans (shrimps and crabs), and provide wood for building and leaves for fodder.

A typical family living in the Yen Lap cooperative in a remote forest area of northern Vietnam, has six members, three of whom as laborers. Both men and woman work in the rice paddies. The family also keeps pigs and buffaloes, fed and cared for by the woman of the household. The family’s main foods are rice, cassava, cabbage and pig fat.

The production system is based on shifting cultivating, and rice productivity is low. The average yields of hill rice, at only 650 kilograms per hectare per year, is less than half that of lowland rice. Typically, the family earns only 35 percent of its household cash income from the sale of agricultural crops.

The family’s food production meets just over half of their nutritional needs (58 percent). The family depends on the nearby forest to provide it with the remainder. A wide selection of forest products is used, including 60 species of plants, fruits, and wild animals. Five wild plant species substitute directly for rice, particularly during the three to four month “hungry’’ season prior to the harvest each year.

For these people, forest foods make the difference between survival and starvation.