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Abstract
The potential importance of natural resources for the livelihood of poor rural
households has long been recognized but seldom quantified and analyzed. In this
paper we apply poverty and inequality measures to national and community level data
sets to explore the impacts of resource extraction on rural welfare. Our findings
suggest that natural resource extraction reduces both income inequality and poverty.
Results from a simulation analysis at the community level indicate that poverty may be
reduced, in the short-run, by increases in the price of a non-timber forest product