Fig. 3

Demographic characteristics of household survey respondents across forest-adjacent communities in Togo, Benin, Nigeria, and Cameroon. (a) Highest education level attained (categorized as no formal education, primary, secondary/high school, tertiary), (b) Gender distribution (percentage of male and female respondents), (c) Main occupation/profession of respondents (categorized as crafts and trades, farming, household roles, hunters, unemployed, or others), (d) Age distribution (categorized into age brackets: 20–35, 35–50, 50–65, and > 65 years), (e) Residency duration in community (categorized as < 5, 5–10, 10–15, 15–20, and > 20 years), and (f) Household size (number of individuals per household). Data were collected from a total of 2,621 households surveyed between October 2022 and March 2023 across nine forest patches: Agou (n = 351), Elavagnon-Todji (n = 306), and Koui (n = 150) in Togo; Ewè-Adakplamè (n = 307) and Hlanzoun (n = 312) in Benin; Iko (n = 344) and Ikot (n = 377) in Nigeria; and Mbangassina (n = 302) and Ngam-Kondomeyos (n = 172) in Cameroon.