Forest-SWIFT has been developed to collect data on forest dependence and poverty across two rounds of more comprehensive household surveys. Forest-SWIFT is a strong econometric modeling exercise based on the Survey of Wellbeing via Instant and Frequent Tracking (SWIFT). Forest-SWIFT models use existing measures of forest dependence and poverty to identify determinants that explain most of these measures; these determinants are then included in a short questionnaire and data can be collected more rapidly. The Forest-SWIFT model does not intend to replace more traditional comprehensive household surveys but to complement them by measuring impacts in a faster and more cost-effective manner.
Forest-SWIFT has been implemented in Turkey and is currently being developed in Armenia, Argentina and Tunisia. Work completed in Turkey revealed that strong baseline data are crucial to developing robust models. Questionnaire design matters as survey responses are influenced by questions in the baseline survey and by interviewee fatigue. In addition, the Forest-SWIFT model is limited to computations of non-zero and positive values, which can be problematic where households have zero or negative forest income. However, Forest-SWIFT in Turkey did succeed in providing follow-up measures of forest income and robust measures on poverty for households located in forest areas.