Analysis of income structure and socio-economic conditions of people in forest village: A case study of the royally-initiated forest and wildlife conservation project in the forest areas of five connecting provinces (Eastern region)

Deforestation is one of the most significant problem in Thailand, especially the forest encroachment for the purpose of shifting cultivation that leads to the decrease in forest area. This has brought about direct and indirect impacts on human and the environment. Forest village is one of the management approaches being used for rehabilitation of the forest resource. The objectives of this study are to examine the socio-economics condition, income structure and the attitude of people in forest village in the royally-initiated forest and wildlife conservation project in the forest areas of five connecting provinces (Eastern region). This study used 30 samples household under the project to compare with 30 samples of the people residing outside the forest village. The result of assessment on socio-economic condition of people in the forest village shows that the average holding land is 24.46 rai/family. Their main occupation is farming. The additional occupation is custom work in both farm and non-farm sectors. Their main agricultural problems are plant diseases and insects, fluctuation of price product, the water shortage as well as the lack of capital. However people in the forest village express that they are better off. The comparison of the income structure shows that the income structure of the people inside forest village is better than that of people outside forest village. The average net cash farm income of people inside forest village was 24,046.85 baht/family/year and that of people outside forest village was 16,359.01 baht/family/year. The average net cash family income of people inside forest village was 43,558.19 baht/family/year and that of people outside forest village was 35,082.34 baht/family/year. The average cash saving of people inside forest village was a negative value of -1,976.78 baht/family/year while cash saving of people outside forest village was a negative value of -11,662.26 baht/family/year (or dissaving). The results of hypothesis tests on the income structure show that it is not significantly different at 0.95 level of confidence. It was found that people in the forest village have positive attitudes toward forest village project and forest and wildlife conservation. The results of hypothesis tests show that age and income are the factors which significantly cause the positive attitudes toward forest village project. Whereas sex, age and income are the factors which significantly cause the positive attitudes toward forest and wildlife conservation.