Abstract:
Communities adjacent to forest are faced with a challenge of balancing their labour
allocation decisions to the different household activities. This study was done around
Kakamega forest in Western Kenya and examined empirically the factors influencing
households’ labour allocation to agriculture, forest and non-farm activities. A semi-
structured questionnaire was used to collect data from a random sample of 140
households, on household characteristics and key policy parameters affecting labour
allocation. A labour share model similar to standard models of commodity or factor
demand was used in estimation. The study findings indicate that wage returns on each
activity positively influence labour allocation. Additionally education level of
household head has a negative influence on forest and non-farm labour shares while
positive on agriculture labour share. Other factors like size of landholding and family
size all affect household labour allocation decision. These findings have implications
for the type of policies needed to support improved labour supply decisions in the
rural sector. Investment in livelihood activities in the rural set-up would largely draw
much labour to this sector, hence reduced pressure in the forest ecosystems
