Measuring forest and agricultural income in the Ecuadorian lowland rainforest frontiers: Do deforestation and conservation strategies matter?

Forest and agricultural activities are the main income source in tropical regions. Ecuadorian farmers at the forest frontiers also depend on natural resources as part of their livelihood strategies; consequently, factors like deforestation and conservation strategies might limit the availability and accessibility to natural resources with potential implications for local economies. Rural income studies are still scarce for Latin America; moreover, there is a knowledge gap about how deforestation and conservation strategies affect rural income. This manuscript addresses this gap by analyzing whether the deforestation context and the presence of conservation strategies, command and control and incentive-based conservation, influence forest and agricultural income generated by rural farmers. Additionally, we explore the contribution of natural resources to rural income, providing insights on farmers’ dependency on natural assets. Our results are based on 1157 surveys applied to households in the lowland rainforest frontiers from the Central Amazon and the Northwestern Coast of Ecuador. We determined that more than 50% of household income comes from forest and agricultural activities. Regression results showed that in the Central Amazon, the deforestation context and conservation strategies did not have significant effects on forest income. However, indigenous households living close to an area under conservation derive higher income from agricultural activities. On the Northwestern Coast, where the forest is becoming scarce, high deforestation context is associated with higher forest and agricultural income at the household level. Nevertheless, indigenous people living around a conservation area derive more forest income and less agricultural income due to the intense timber extraction in privately owned forest remnants. This study provides useful information for policies aimed to improve rural economies and natural resources conservation.