Trees play a significant role in poor people's seasonal livelihoods: this has been a neglected subject due to interlocking biases against understanding how the poor secure their incomes, and ignorance of the multipurpose role of trees. Trees play an important seasonal role through their physical characteristics: deep rooting with access to moisture and nutrients year round. Accumulation of stocks in the form of wood and various beneficial environmental effects. Trees seasonally stabilise, protect and support the livelihoods of the rural poor and policies can be designed which reinforce this important role.