Poverty and Environment Network (PEN) is an international research project and network. Launched in 2004, PEN is the largest and most comprehensive global analysis of tropical forests and poverty. Its database contains survey data on 8000+ households in 40+ study sites in 25 developing countries. At the core of PEN is comparative, detailed socio-economic data that was collected quarterly at the household and village level by 50+ research partners using standardised definitions, questionnaires and methods. The study sites were chosen to obtain widely representative coverage of different geographical regions, forest types, forest tenure regimes, levels of poverty, infrastructure and market access, and population density. The dataset is available from CIFOR Dataverse via the link in Related ResourcesForests are crucial to the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of poor people worldwide, but just how important, and for what functions? Can they help lift people out of poverty, or are they mainly useful as gap-fillers and safety nets in response to shocks? Are certain types of forest-tenure and management regimes more favourable than others? And under what conditions can increased integration into forest-product markets help? These are the questions to be answered by this tropics-wide, multi-partner research project. In the Poverty and Environment Network (PEN) consortium, led by the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), around 30 partners (mostly PhD students) gather quantitative and qualitative socioeconomic data using the same questionnaire in all three developing-country continents to illuminate the role of forests and environmental income in preventing and reducing rural poverty. A centrally coordinated pan-tropical data bank with high-quality primary household and village data is being created for the global-comparative analysis. DFID-ESRC kindly finances those PEN research components related to data-bank establishment, global analysis, publication of scientific outputs, and the dissemination of policy recommendations for tangible forest-poverty interventions.

Three types of quantitative surveys were conducted: 1. Village surveys; 2. Annual household surveys; 3. Quarterly household surveys. The village surveys collected data that were common to all or showed little variation among households. The first village survey was conducted at the beginning of the fieldwork to get background information on the villages while the second survey was conducted the end of the fieldwork period to get information for the 12 months period covered by the surveys. The household surveys were grouped into two categories: quarterly surveys to collect income information, and, household surveys to collect all other household information. Two other household surveys were conducted. The first annual household survey collected basic household information (demographics, assets, forest-related information) and was done at the beginning of the survey period while the second collected information for the 12-month period covered by the surveys (e.g., on risk management) and was done at the end of the survey period.