Riparian zones usually play important provisioning and supporting roles in the livelihoods of rural household. This study aims to quantitatively examine the economic dependence of rural households on riparian zones. Data were collected from 216 households across 8 villages in the Dissin area, Burkina Faso. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data collected, while Ordinary Least Squares Analytical Procedure was used to determine the parameter estimates of riparian income and economic dependence. The average riparian income per household is 643 USD. The economic dependence of both low- and high-income households is relatively low at 4.95% and 29.26%, respectively. Low-income and middle-income households have higher economic dependencies of 67.21% and 67.33%, respectively. In addition, the factors that contribute to the economic dependence are related to sex, the proximity of the riparian zone, the occurrence of negative idiosyncratic shocks, the availability of adult labor and the increased importance of other sources of income. The analyses indicate also that when the riparian income is excluded, the Gini coefficient increases from 0.35 to 056 and the incidence of poverty increases from 40.2% to 75.4%. These results justify the implementation of public policies to ensure the sustainability of local practices in riparian zones

Keywords: Riparian zones, riparian income, economic dependence, rural households, income distribution, Burkina Faso.