The nestedness of forest dependence: A conceptual framework and empirical exploration

Previous research on forest dependence has been limited by (1) an incomplete treatment of the topic (an overemphasis of timber dependence) and (2) careless specification of inferences based on data employed. This article presents a conceptual framework for understanding the nested nature afforest dependence, and demonstrates how forest dependence changes when examining progressively smaller units of analysis. North Americans derive a wide variety of goods and services from their forests. A combination of human uses, including timber use, tourism/recreation use, subsistence, other nontimber use, and ecological use, comprises forest dependence at any given unit of analysis. Available data from the northeastern United States are used to show how forest dependence differs as one shifts between nested, spatial units of analysis.