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Rural households in developing countries often depend on non-timber forest products (NTFPs), including foods, traditional medicines, fuelwood, fodder, and construction and craft materials such as bamboo and rattan, for their livelihoods, but the forests that supply NTFPs are subject to competition from other land uses. NTFP collectors who are unable to sustain their livelihoods because of changes caused in the NTFP collection environment by deforestation and degradation may even convert surrounding forests to agricultural land to compensate for their reduced incomes. This feedback loop of deforestation and degradation can create further conflicts among natural resource users and undermine long-term development goals. Here, we aimed to advance the discussion of forest conservation interventions in protected areas in developing countries—particularly the discussion of patrolling strategies in and around existing wildlife sanctuaries—by presenting a new approach that uses the case of NTFP collection and a human geography perspective. We used a structured questionnaire composed of closed questions to measure the awareness of village households of the impacts of deforestation and/or illegal extraction of trees on NTFP collection over a short period of time (2014–2016) near the Prey Long Wildlife Sanctuary in the eastern part of the Kampong Thom Province, Cambodia. Our survey was based on the conceptual framework of Bohensky and Lynam (Ecol. Soc. 10, 11; 2005) that people in complex adaptive systems change their behaviour after becoming aware of the impact or consequences of a change. The probability of a village having an affected household (i.e., a household that was aware of the impact) was predicted by using generalized linear mixed models. By using identified geospatial indicators of environmental and socioeconomic aspects, including distance between the village and the wildlife sanctuary, size of deforested area per capita in 2014–2016 within a 10-km radius of the village and proportion of households in the village that collect NTFPs for cash income, we predicted the spatial distribution of villages with affected NTFP-collecting households. Priority areas for NTFP collection were then mapped with reference to the identified indicators. By using these results, we present an approach to breaking the deforestation feedback loop by identifying priority areas for patrolling and other forest conservation interventions in the wildlife sanctuary. • We mapped the distribution of NTFP-collecting households affected by deforestation. • We also mapped priority areas for NTFP collection. • These maps help with the triaging of forest conservation interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored characteristics of households affected by deforestation in their fuelwood and non-timber forest product (NTFP) collections in Kampong Thom Province, Kingdom of Cambodia, where tropical lowland forests are decreasing in size owing mainly to agribusiness development and farming. Deforested areas were delineated by satellite image interpretation of forest cover change. A questionnaire survey was conducted for 161 households in six villages within three districts having varying degrees of forest cover changes per capita over a period of 5 years. Generalized linear mixed models were used to analyze characteristics of households affected by deforestation in their fuelwood and NTFP collections. The characteristics vary with the collection activity examined, either fuelwood or NTFP collection. We revealed that deforestation notably affects villagers whose non-forest fuelwood sources are scarce. People who collected fuelwood in forests after deforestation are more likely to be affected if the remaining forest area per capita near their village is less. In contrast, for NTFP collection, the size of the deforested area per capita near villages is more important than that of the remaining forest area, particularly to those who depend on NTFP collection as one of their main livelihood activities before deforestation. In contrast with much of the literature that has stated that the poor depend more on NTFPs, our results show that the relationship between household wealth and NTFP dependence was more than a simple negative correlation; i.e., the local people's material wealth was not a strong determinant in our NTFP model. The importance of stakeholder analysis and consultation with local residents in impact assessments and natural resource management involving land-use changes has been progressively acknowledged in the academic literature. In this context, we argue that it is essential to identify potentially affected groups among local residents in terms of their fuelwood and NTFP collections in a short-term period widely distributed at the provincial level. The combination of our findings, method applied and existing demographic survey networks in Cambodia provides an approach of identifying the affected residents in a transparent manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]