Household Income, Inequality, and Poverty Outcomes for Uganda's Migrant Pit-Saw Loggers

Pamela Jagger, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Arthur Arinaitwe, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Uganda
Gerald Shively, Purdue University
Dick Sserunkuuma, Makerere University

This paper explores the relative importance of migrant pit-saw logging to households in land scarce southwestern Uganda. Little is known about the livelihoods of East Africa's migrant loggers as they generally work in remote locations. Further, the illegal nature of their work makes them difficult to interview at the point of production. We compare a sample of households engaged in migrant pit-saw logging with households that do not engage in logging. We test several hypotheses regarding the decision to participate in this challenging and risky activity. We find that pit-saw logging plays an important role in lifting poor households out of the lowest income quartile; it also significantly reduces income inequality among households in southwestern Uganda. The determinants of participation in this livelihood activity include: large number of adult males in the household; having a relatively young household head; and owning relatively few assets.