The contribution of forests on food security and rural poverty: A current status in Johor

Abstract

In recent years, the issue between forest resources, food security and rural poverty has emerged and globally become a fundamental problem. Forests provide food, fodder and fuel, and somehow the forest goods and services itself provide a means of earning income, especially in rural communities. In understanding the contribution of forests to food security, it is essential to look at the current socioeconomic status of the rural communities especially forest-dependent communities and determine the linkages between them. Therefore, a 2020 study was conducted to analyse the contribution of forests and its related activities to food security and rural poverty within rural households including indigenous people. The study employed rapid rural appraisal and socioeconomic survey on the rural households live within and the adjacent of forest specifically Permanent Reserved Forest. Generally, this study was conducted throughout Peninsular Malaysia. However, this paper only focuses on the state of Johor as an example for this study. A case study in Johor found that forests and its resources provided significant contribution on food security and rural poverty. Where, it contributes up to 21.5% of monthly cash income of rural communities and if there is no income generated from the forests the poverty incidence of these communities will increase up to 13.7% from current incidence.