**4.2. Provision of employment opportunities**

Council forests provide local employment opportunities. As Cuny [9] notes, about 85% of council forests employees are local indigenes. The contribution of the case study council forests to local employment and in terms of average monthly income is depicted in **Figures 2** and **3**, respectively. Apart from the Dimako council forest where almost all the logging operations are carried out by people directly employed by the council, most of the other councils have contracted their forest to large-scale logging companies for the purpose of timber extraction.

<sup>1</sup> 2,484,000 FCFA is almost equal to 5000 USD.

**Figure 2.** Number of people working with the case study council forests.

**Figure 3.** Average monthly wages for people working with the case study council forests.
