Poverty State in Forest Area of Indonesia : A Case Study at South Sulawesi Province

2 l Abstract The research was carried out during 200I-2002 in Polmas Disrict, South Sulawesi Pro­ vince, Indonesia. Two questions addressed in the research; "what is the proportion of forest­ dwellers who have incomes below poverty line and to examine how poor the poor are and what are the factors responsible for the poverty in the forest area." Quantitative research methods­ -Head Count Index (HCI), Poverty Gap Index (PGI), and Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA)-had been employed to unearth and to provide better understanding of poverty issue. To uncover the poverty state in the area community observed was divided into two groups, in­ forest and near-forest communities. After carefully analyzed three important of research findings emerged as follows: (1) by any measures, both communities are struck by acute poverty, (2) poverty measure discloses that the number of poor households and the acuteness of poverty at in­ forest community, respectively, are larger and higher than at near-forest community, (3) among the variables studied, family structure, agricultural productivity, children income, and off-farm labor income are significant predictor variables of poverty causes at in-forest community. Meanwhile there are also four significant variables identified as causes of poverty at near-forest community, they are : family structure, wage rate, household head income, and on-farm labor income.