Forests, Livelihoods, and Poverty Linkages in the Forest Communities of Georgia: Evidence and recommendations from a 2016 household survey
Making forests an effective tool for economic and social development in rural areas requires a thorough understanding and data on both the people and communities using forests as well as on the forests themselves. In 2016, the World Bank conducted a large-scale household survey in Georgia with a particular focus on better understanding the significant of forests for rural households. This survey was the first one in the country that was focused on collecting data on forest use, income from forests, and the role of forests in peopleโs daily lives. The survey results are representative of villages located near forested areas across different levels of forest coverage and across zones of different natural disaster risks. This new data source fills an acknowledged information gap about rural populations living in remote and mountainous communities. These communities have often been omitted as distinct strata in the sampling frame of routinely conducted nationally representative household surveys.