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Dryland Afforestation and Poverty Alleviation: Bedouin and Palestinian Non-Timber Forest Product Collectors in Contrasting Economic Environments

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Dryland Afforestation and Poverty Alleviation: Bedouin and Palestinian Non-Timber Forest Product Collectors in Contrasting Economic Environments Hum Ecol (2008) 36:923–930 DOI 10.1007/s10745-008-9202-5 Dryland Afforestation and Poverty Alleviation: Bedouin and Palestinian Non-timber Forest Product Collectors in Contrasting Economic Environments Henri Rueff & Cédric Parizot & Arnon Ben Israel & Moshe Schwartz Published online: 22 November 2008 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2008 Introduction decreasing dependency on natural resources as income increases. Escobal and Aldana (2003) observed the same Non-timber forest products (NTFP), whether consumed or relationship among collectors of Brazil nuts in southeastern marketed, represent a substantial value (Pimentel et al. Peru. 1997; Kusters and Belcher 2004). NTFP are believed In a survey of 537 households in India, Narain et al. capable of alleviating poverty or at least helping maintain (2005) found a more complex relationship: a U-shape effect consumption levels while averting impoverishment (Vedeld of income on natural resource dependence, which decreases et al. 2007; Mahapatra and Tewari 2005). Communities with increasing income, while in the higher income groups find in forests edible and medicinal plants, meat, honey, it increases again. In sum, the rich collect no natural fodder, and fuel. Studies (Arnold 2001; Neuman and Hirsch resources, or collect a lot, while the poor collect a sizable 2000) have shown that NTFP extraction can serve the poor amount for subsistence purposes. NTFP extraction will play as a safety-net. NTFPs may be utilized on a regular basis to different roles in diverse economic environments. It can be provide food to some households and income to those a major source of subsistence, part of a diversified portfolio pursuing more intensive extraction strategies. However, the of rural community activities or compensate for income extent to which the rural poor rely on the forest for their shortfalls. livelihood depends on the measure of their access to In drylands, planted forests often take over grazing land alternative opportunities (Arnold 2001). previously used by the underprivileged. Mediterranean The share of natural resources in the income of the rural dryland forests are often small and recently planted, providing poor is higher than in that of wealthier households. Three limited resources. In Israel, afforestation has served, among studies out of four (in India, Himalayan villages, Zimbabwe other purposes, as a tool for land control, sometimes over and Nepal) reviewed by Narain et al.(2005) suggest a disputed territories. Nevertheless, and despite warfare con- straints in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, fringe : communities have informally been allowed to make use H. Rueff (*) M. Schwartz of Israeli-planted forests inside the Green Line.1 Department of Man in the Dryland, Blaustein Institutes for Desert While NTFP production in tropical and equatorial forests has Research, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, been abundantly treated in the literature (Escobal and Aldana Sede Boqer, Israel 2003; Morris and Ingles 2003;Narainet al. 2005; Wunder e-mail: [email protected] 2001), little is known about such production in dryland single species forests, widely planted in the Mediterranean basin. C. Parizot French Research Centre in Jerusalem (CRFJ), Croitoru (2007) provided an estimate for Mediterranean forests − − Jerusalem, Israel with an average NTFP valued at €35 ha 1, reaching €54 ha 1 A. B. Israel Department of Geography and Environmental Development, 1 The 1949 armistice line separating Israel and its neighbors. It is also Ben Gurion University of the Negev, used to delineate areas captured and occupied by Israel in 1967. Here Beersheva, Israel it refers to the line separating Israel and the West Bank. 924 Hum Ecol (2008) 36:923–930 on the average in the southern regions. For the Middle East and 34° 55′E). Yatir stretches along the Green Line between (Turkey,Cyprus,Lebanon,Syria,Israel,Palestine),thevalueof Israel and the West Bank (Fig. 1), and constitutes Israel’s NTFP was estimated to be the lowest of all, at €20 ha−1.There largest forest. Precipitation occurs erratically between Octo- is no other specific estimate of NTFP value in Israel and the ber and May, and averages 270 mm year−1, the lowest limit Palestinian Authority Territories specifically. for large-scale rainfed afforestation. The main tree species in NTFP extraction practices in a single forest by two the Yatir forest is Pinus halepensis Mill., resistant to dry and distinct categories of rural poor (e.g. each living in a different hot summers as well as to consecutive years of drought. economic environment) have also, to our knowledge, never On the northern edge of the Negev (Israel) reside been assessed. This study centers on ways by which national sedentarized Bedouin and in the South Hebron Mountains prosperity may affect NTFP collection by the poor in low (West Bank) there are former peasants. These communities NTFP production forests. The study considers the live- dwell in the towns of Hura and Sammu’, respectively. Both lihoods of two marginalized communities located on are underprivileged vis-à-vis the rest of their societies. Yet opposite sides of a forest and sharing its resources, while they use the forest differently, due to the contrast between living respectively in a relatively wealthy country and in an the Palestinian and Israeli economies. impoverished one: specifically an Israeli Bedouin commu- Like the other Palestinians who stayed in Israel after nity and a Palestinian community in the West Bank. 1948, the Bedouin received Israeli citizenship in the 1950s (Marx 1967). The peasants of the Hebron Foothills fell under Jordanian rule and later, in 1967, when Israel Methodology and Area Studied occupied the West Bank and Gaza, lived under Israeli administration. In 1997 they were integrated into the Our study was conducted in Yatir, a 3,000 ha forest planted Palestinian Authority, when, in the framework of the Oslo in 1964 in the Northern Negev desert of Israel (31° 20′N Agreements, Israel ceded control of Sammu’ and Yatta to the Fig. 1 Map of the studied area Hebron West Bank Palestinian Authority (see Oslo Agreements) e Gaza Strip in L n e e r Israel G e c ti is Yatta rm A 9 4 9 1 Dhahiriya Sammu' Rahat Lahav Lehavim Metar Scale: 1:250.000 Laqqye 05 10 km Hura Yatir Forest N Beer Sheva Arad Tel as-Saba Kseifa Population per localities Main Palestinian localities Oslo Agreements >160,000 Main Israeli settlements Area A - Full Palestinian civil and military control in the West Bank (effective in Jericho only) 45,000 Israeli Jewish localities Area B - Full Palestinian civil control and joint 30,000 Israeli Bedouin localities Israeli-Palestinian military control 18,000 Main Roads Area C - Full Israeli civil and military control Sources: CBS Israel, DCW, Esri, JNF, PCBS, OCHA - Map: Henri Rueff 2007 Boundaries and names shown on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by any state or organisation Hum Ecol (2008) 36:923–930 925 Fig. 2 Interconnection between poverty factors and NTFP reli- ance in the Israeli–Palestinian space Regional politics, ethnic control, warfare Barter economy, National wealth, job monetized economy opportunities and wages Poverty level, reliance on NTFP, exiting poverty, maintaining consumption Environment, NTFP resources Overall mobility, access to NTFP available, seasonality extraction site and markets Networks, know-how and empowerment Palestinian Authority. While both Arab communities belong livestock in Yatir for the last 17 years. We gathered to the Palestinian population which lived in the region prior information on how the Bedouin use the forest and what to the establishment of the State of Israel (1948), we will use incomes they derive from it. We finally cross-validated the the terms "Bedouin" when referring to the population which data acquired (Fig. 2). lives inside 1967 Israeli borders and "Palestinians" to refer to the peasants of the Hebron Foothills. Though we use different labels for these communities, we are well aware Poverty in the Bedouin Community of the Negev of the close networks they maintain across the Green Line (Kressel 1993; Parizot 2006a, b). The 150,000 Bedouin of the Negev are the most under- Data on NTFP extraction were collected in 2004 through privileged section of Israeli society. This is partly due to the participant observation and by interviewing government fact that the Negev is Israel’s poorest region, but also due to officials, key local figures and community members. the allocation of land to natural parks, industries and Jewish Official statistics were also used. While questionnaires settlements. Israel’s withdrawal from the Sinai in the 1980s, might have yielded a more systematic estimate, respondents following the peace treaty with Egypt, further increased had become suspicious of formal interviews during the land scarcity as most of the Negev was allocated to military second Intifada (uprising), which broke out in September bases. These allocations have often led to the eviction and 2000 and was still ongoing at the time of the study. resettlement of Bedouin (Marx 2000). Moreover, responses to questions about the extraction of The patterns of administration and integration imposed protected plants (hyssops) or the trapping of protected on the Bedouin of the Negev by successive Israeli govern- animals are highly suspect at all times, which gave us an ments have marginalized them (Parizot 2001). Settled in additional reason to favour an ethnographic approach. seven planned townships around the city of Beer Sheva We interviewed three Palestinian respondents in the (Fig. 1) and in slums,2 this semi-urban proletariat belongs town of Sammu’, all three acquainted with NTFP collection to Israel’s lower socioeconomic strata, constituting a practices in Yatir. Each of them estimated separately the "lumpenproletariat".3 Unemployment is high among the numbers of people hired to do the work, the length of the season, and the amount of products trucked from Sammu’ 2 Disagreements between Bedouin people and the State of Israel to markets in other cities.
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