학술논문

Why Social Capital Matters for the Success of REDD+ Programs
Document Type
Article
Source
인간식물환경학회지, 25(2), 132, pp.227-237 Apr, 2022
Subject
자연과학일반
Language
English
ISSN
2508-7681
2508-7673
Abstract
Background and objective: We quantitatively estimated the impact of social capital on poverty reduction using a surveyconducted on 335 randomly selected households in 6 villages running REDD+ programs in Bago Province, Myanmar. Ourcentral question is whether the effectiveness of REDD+ programs is associated with social capital, including networks,trust, cooperation, and social inclusion. Methods: We developed a tool to measure social capital while considering forest conservation activities, and quantitativelyanalyzed the impact of social capital on poverty levels in 6 villages running REDD+ programs in Myanmar. Results: Our results reveal that social capital has a significant effect in alleviating household poverty in Myanmar. Thus,investment in social capital may help alleviate poverty. REDD+ training participants and community forestry membersshowed a relatively higher level of social capital than those who did not participate. We also found that forest dependentswere statistically significantly more likely to live in poverty, which implies that socially marginalized residents tend to relymore on forests and that collecting forest products has limited effects on overcoming poverty. Conclusion: The local strategy for implementing REDD+ programs should target community forestry members to promotetheir social capital by supporting forest tenures and benefit sharing among marginalized people.