Assessing the contribution of forests to poverty reduction requires strong measurements. Following initiatives from the Poverty Environment Network and other case studies, a consortium of institutions including the Food and Agriculture Organizations (FAO), the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the Program on Forest (PROFOR), the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI), and the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS), developed a new set of modules to help researchers, practitioners, and policymakers collect robust socioeconomic data linked to forest resources, areas, and activities.
The Forestry modules is comprised of community and household questionnaires, and includes both standard and extended questionnaires ( FAO et al 2016). The standard community questionnaire is focused on forest products: the most important forest products, units and pricing, and community benefits derived from these products. The standard household questionnaire seeks information on forest income, and how forest resources are used for the energy, health, nutrition and construction needs of the community. The extended community questionnaire includes questions on governance and forest institutions, and environmental services derived by communities from forests. The extended household questionnaire seeks further information about forest clearance and changes. Questionnaires can be tailored to the needs of the surveyors: they can be used independently (stand-alone) or as an add-on to other multi-topic household surveys.
To calibrate these Forestry modules, tests were conducted in Tanzania, Nepal, and Indonesia. Baakegaard et al 2017 assessed the quality of this pilot and found; the researchers found that these modules performed well in capturing data on forest and wild product incomes. The Forestry Modules have been conducted in Turkey and Georgia, and are currently being implemented in Sao Tome and Principe, as well as in other countries.