Forest-dependent people

The term forest-dependent people is used to describe any of a wide variety of livelihoods that are dependent on access to forests, products harvested from forests, or ecosystem services provided by forests, including those of Indigenous peoples dependent on forests.^[70] In India, approximately 22 percent of the population belongs to forest-dependent communities, which live in close proximity to forests and practice agroforestry as a principal part of their livelihood.^[71] People of Ghana who rely on timber and bushmeat harvested from forests and Indigenous peoples of the Amazon rainforest are also examples of forest-dependent people.^[70] Though forest-dependence by more common definitions is statistically associated with poverty and rurallivelihoods, elements of forest-dependence exist in communities with a wide range of characteristics. Generally, richer households derive more cash value from forest resources, whereas among poorer households, forest resources are more important for home consumption and increase community resilience.^[72]

Indigenous peoples

Forests are fundamental to the culture and livelihood of indigenous people groups that live in and depend on forests,^[73] many of which have been removed from and denied access to the lands on which they lived as part of global colonialism. Indigenous lands contain 36% or more of intact forest worldwide, host more biodiversity, and experience less deforestation.^[74][75][76] Indigenous activists have argued that degradation of forests and indigenous peoples' marginalization and land dispossession are interconnected.^[77][78] Other concerns among indigenous peoples include lack of Indigenous involvement in forest management and loss of knowledge related for the forest ecosystem.^[79] Since 2002, the amount of land that is legally owned by or designated for indigenous peoples has broadly increased, but land acquisition in lower-income countries by multinational corporations, often with little or no consultation of indigenous peoples, has also increased.^[80] Research in the Amazon rainforest suggests that indigenous methods of agroforestry form reservoirs of biodiversity.^[81] In the U.S. state of Wisconsin, forests managed by indigenous people have more plant diversity, fewer invasive species, higher tree regeneration rates, and higher volume of trees.^[82]

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