Title_ The Poverty–Environment Nexus and the Wealth Paradox: Community Forest Collective Action and Child Labor in Bolivia

Author_ Randall BLUFFSTONE

Pages 49-92

Abstract_ This paper examines the relationship between child labor and forest collective action in community forest settings in the Bolivian Andes. A key part of the poverty–environment nexus literature contends that lack of collective action leads to open access, poor natural resource management and use of more labor to get needed direct use forest values like fuelwood, fodder and grazing. These forest products are known to be critical for rural livelihoods in low-income countries like Bolivia, and child labor is often used to collect them. Though effective collective action curbs open access, it also in the long run increases forest quality, reducing household forest product collection costs. It is therefore not completely clear that open access increases and collective action reduces child labor. This paper tests the hypothesis that better collective action leads to less child labor and extends the so-called wealth paradox literature to include community forest wealth proxied by collective action quality, which I hope offers a significant contribution to the literature. Using several econometric methods, I find that households experiencing more effective collective action generally use more forest-based and total child labor. The results suggest that child labor may be an important disamenity of collective action.

Keywords_ Forests, Collective Action, Bolivia, Child Labor