Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

A global analysis of the social and environmental outcomes of community forests

Nature Sustainability volume 4, pages 216–224 (2021)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Community forest management (CFM) has been promoted for decades as a way to merge environmental conservation with economic development and natural resource rights agendas. Yet many of these initiatives have also led to substantial socioeconomic and environmental trade-offs. We present a comprehensive global analysis of environmental, income and natural resource rights outcomes of CFM, using data from 643 cases in 51 countries. We find that while the majority of cases reported positive environmental and income-related outcomes, forest access and resource rights were often negatively affected by policies to formalize CFM, countering one of CFM’s principal goals. Positive outcomes across all three dimensions were rare. We show that biophysical conditions, de facto tenure rights, national context, user-group characteristics and intervention types are key predictors of joint positive outcomes. These findings highlight key conducive conditions for CFM interventions, which can inform CFM design to ensure positive outcomes across multiple sustainability dimensions.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Double and triple outcomes of social and environmental outcomes.
Fig. 2: Mean partial weighted pseudo R2 values for the five most frequently selected variables predicting positive social and environmental outcomes of community forestry across multiple dimensions.
Fig. 3: Mean regression coefficients of the five most frequently selected variables explaining social and environmental outcomes of community forestry in our models.

Data availability

The data used for this analysis is available at: http://www.forestlivelihoods.org/resources/.

Code availability

All computer code used in this analysis is available from the authors upon reasonable request.

References

  1. Houghton, R. A., Byers, B. & Nassikas, A. A. A role for tropical forests in stabilizing atmospheric CO2. Nat. Clim. Change 5, 1022–1023 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Newton, P., Oldekop, J. A., Brodnig, G., Karna, B. K. & Agrawal, A. Carbon, biodiversity, and livelihoods in forest commons: synergies, trade-offs, and implications for REDD+. Environ. Res. Lett. 11, 044017 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Angelsen, A. et al. Environmental income and rural livelihoods: a global-comparative analysis. World Dev. 64, S12–S28 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Lund, J. F., Rutt, R. L. & Ribot, J. Trends in research on forestry decentralization policies. Curr. Opin. Environ. Sustain. 32, 17–22 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  5. At a Crossroads: Consequential Trends in Recognition of Community-Based Forest Tenure (Rights and Resources Initiative, 2018).

  6. Ribot, J. C., Agrawal, A. & Larson, A. M. Recentralizing while decentralizing: how national governments reappropriate forest resources. World Dev. 34, 1864–1886 (2006).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Charnley, S. & Poe, M. R. Community forestry in theory and practice: where are we now? Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 36, 301–337 (2007).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Cronkleton, P., Pulhin, J. M. & Saigal, S. Co-management in community forestry: how the partial devolution of management rights creates challenges for forest communities. Conserv. Soc. 10, 91–102 (2012).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Gilmour, D. Forty Years of Community-Based Forestry: A Review of Its Extent and Effectiveness (FAO, 2016).

  10. Baynes, J., Herbohn, J., Smith, C., Fisher, R. & Bray, D. Key factors which influence the success of community forestry in developing countries. Glob. Environ. Change 35, 226–238 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Chhatre, A. & Agrawal, A. Trade-offs and synergies between carbon storage and livelihood benefits from forest commons. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 106, 17667–17670 (2009).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Persha, L., Agrawal, A. & Chhatre, A. Social and ecological synergy: local rulemaking, forest livelihoods, and biodiversity conservation. Science 331, 1606–1608 (2011).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Rasolofoson, R. A. et al. Impacts of community forest management on human economic well-being across Madagascar. Conserv. Lett. 10, 346–353 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Oldekop, J. A., Sims, K. R. E., Karna, B. K., Whittingham, M. J. & Agrawal, A. Reductions in deforestation and poverty from decentralized forest management in Nepal. Nat. Sustain. 2, 421–428 (2019).

    Google Scholar 

  15. Agrawal, A. & Benson, C. S. Common property theory and resource governance institutions: strengthening explanations of multiple outcomes. Environ. Conserv. 38, 199–210 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

  16. Larson, A., Barry, D. & Dahal, G. R. New rights for forest-based communities? Understanding processes of forest tenure reform. Int. For. Rev. 12, 78–96 (2010).

    Google Scholar 

  17. Hajjar, R., Kozak, R. A. & Innes, J. L. Is decentralization leading to ‘real’ decision-making power for forest-dependent communities? Case studies from Mexico and Brazil. Ecol. Soc. 17, 12 (2012).

    Google Scholar 

  18. Newton, P. et al. What Are the Biophysical, Institutional, and Socioeconomic Contextual Factors Associated with Improvements in Livelihood and Environmental Outcomes in Forests Managed by Communities? A Systematic Review Protocol Working Paper 9 (CIFOR, 2015); https://doi.org/10.17528/cifor/005494

  19. Hajjar, R. et al. The data not collected on community forestry. Conserv. Biol. 30, 1357–1362 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  20. Vyamana, V. Participatory forest management in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania: who benefits? Int. For. Rev. 11, 239–253 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  21. Mohammed, A. J. & Inoue, M. Forest-dependent communities’ livelihood in decentralized forest governance policy epoch: case study from West Shoa zone, Ethiopia. J. Nat. Resour. Policy Res. 5, 49–66 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  22. Nielsen, M. Improving the conservation status of the Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania? The effect of joint forest management on bushmeat hunting in the Kilombero Nature Reserve. Conserv. Soc. 9, 106–118 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

  23. Gobeze, T., Bekele, M., Lemenih, M. & Kassa, H. Participatory forest management and its impacts on livelihoods and forest status: the case of Bonga Forest in Ethiopia. Int. For. Rev. 11, 346–358 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  24. Mishra, T., Mandal, D. & Maiti, S. Evaluation of regeneration of Shorea robusta forests under joint forest management in West Bengal, India. Int. J. Environ. Sustain. Dev. 5, 12–22 (2006).

    Google Scholar 

  25. Oyono, P., Samba, S. & Biyong, M. Beyond the decade of policy and community euphoria: the state of livelihoods under new local rights to forest in rural Cameroon. Conserv. Soc. 10, 173–181 (2012).

    Google Scholar 

  26. Oldekop, J. A., Holmes, G., Harris, W. E. & Evans, K. L. A global assessment of the social and conservation outcomes of protected areas. Conserv. Biol. 30, 133–141 (2016).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. White, I., Royston, P. & Wood, A. Multiple imputation by chained equations: issues and guidance for practice. Stat. Med. 30, 377–399 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

  28. Leuschner, C., Moser, G., Bertsch, C., Röderstein, M. & Hertel, D. Large altitudinal increase in tree root/shoot ratio in tropical mountain forests of Ecuador. Basic Appl. Ecol. 8, 219–230 (2007).

    Google Scholar 

  29. Thanichanon, P., Schmidt-Vogt, D., Messerli, P., Heinimann, A. & Epprecht, M. Secondary forests and local livelihoods along a gradient of accessibility: a case study in northern Laos. Soc. Nat. Resour. 26, 1283–1299 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  30. Schlager, E. & Ostrom, E. Property-rights regimes and natural resources: a conceptual analysis. Land Econ. 68, 249–262 (1992).

    Google Scholar 

  31. Place, F. & Hazell, P. Productivity effects of Indigenous land tenure systems in sub-Saharan Africa. Am. J. Agric. Econ. 75, 10–19 (1993).

    Google Scholar 

  32. Gibson, C., Lehoucq, F. & Williams, J. Does privatization protect natural resources? Property rights and forests in Guatemala. Soc. Sci. Q. 83, 206–225 (2002).

    Google Scholar 

  33. Bugri, J. T. The dynamics of tenure security, agricultural production and environmental degradation in Africa: evidence from stakeholders in north-east Ghana. Land Use Policy 25, 271–285 (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  34. Cronkleton, P. & Larson, A. Formalization and collective appropriation of space on forest frontiers: comparing communal and individual property systems in the Peruvian and Ecuadoran Amazon. Soc. Nat. Resour. 28, 496–512 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  35. Nayak, P. K. & Berkes, F. Politics of co-optation: community forest management versus joint forest management in Orissa, India. Environ. Manage. 41, 707–718 (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  36. Berkes, F., George, P. & Preston, R. J. Co-management: the evolution in theory and practice of the joint administration of living resources. Alternatives 18, 12–18 (1991).

    Google Scholar 

  37. Humphries, S., Holmes, T., de Andrade, D. F. C., McGrath, D. & Dantas, J. B. Searching for win–win forest outcomes: learning-by-doing, financial viability, and income growth for a community-based forest management cooperative in the Brazilian Amazon. World Dev. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.06.005 (2018).

  38. Bray, D. B. et al. Mexico’s community-managed forests as a global model for sustainable landscapes. Conserv. Biol. 17, 672–677 (2003).

    Google Scholar 

  39. Balooni, K., Pulhin, J. & Inoue, M. When is Decentralization in Forest Management a Success and when is it a Failure? Case Studies from the Philippines (Indiana Univ., 2007).

  40. Oldekop, J. A., Bebbington, A. J., Brockington, D. & Preziosi, R. F. Understanding the lessons and limitations of conservation and development. Conserv. Biol. 24, 461–469 (2010).

    Google Scholar 

  41. Rudel, T. K. et al. Forest transitions: towards a global understanding of land use change. Glob. Environ. Change 15, 23–31 (2005).

    Google Scholar 

  42. Erbaugh, J. T. & Oldekop, J. A. Forest landscape restoration for livelihoods and well-being. Curr. Opin. Environ. Sustain. 32, 76–83 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  43. Honey-Rosés, J., Maurer, M., Ramírez, M. I. & Corbera, E. Quantifying active and passive restoration in Central Mexico from 1986–2012: assessing the evidence of a forest transition. Restor. Ecol. 26, 1180–1189 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  44. Oldekop, J. A., Sims, K. R. E., Whittingham, M. J. & Agrawal, A. An upside to globalization: international outmigration drives reforestation in Nepal. Glob. Environ. Change 52, 66–74 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  45. Peluso, N. L. & Purwanto, A. B. The remittance forest: turning mobile labor into agrarian capital. Singap. J. Trop. Geogr. 39, 6–36 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  46. Sikor, T. & Nguyen, T. Q. Why may forest devolution not benefit the rural poor? Forest entitlements in Vietnam’s central highlands. World Dev. 35, 2010–2025 (2007).

    Google Scholar 

  47. Pulhin, J. M. & Dressler, W. H. People, power and timber: the politics of community-based forest management. J. Environ. Manage. 91, 206–214 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  48. Jones, J. P. G. et al. Human migration to the forest frontier: implications for land use change and conservation management. Geo 5, e00050 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  49. Robson, J. P. & Berkes, F. Exploring some of the myths of land use change: can rural to urban migration drive declines in biodiversity? Glob. Environ. Change 21, 844–854 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

  50. Brooks, J. S., Waylen, K. A. & Borgerhoff Mulder, M. How national context, project design, and local community characteristics influence success in community-based conservation projects. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109, 21265–21270 (2012).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  51. Larson, A. M. & Soto, F. Decentralization of natural resource governance regimes. Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 33, 213–239 (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  52. Anderson, J., Mehta, S., Epelu, E. & Cohen, B. Managing leftovers: does community forestry increase secure and equitable access to valuable resources for the rural poor? For. Policy Econ. 58, 47–55 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  53. Thanh, T. N. & Sikor, T. From legal acts to actual powers: devolution and property rights in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. For. Policy Econ. 8, 397–408 (2006).

    Google Scholar 

  54. Larson, A. M., Cronkleton, P., Barry, D. & Pacheco, P. Tenure Rights and Beyond: Community Access to Forest Resources in Latin America (CIFOR, 2008).

  55. Scheba, A. & Mustalahti, I. Rethinking ‘expert’ knowledge in community forest management in Tanzania. For. Policy Econ. 60, 7–18 (2015).

    Google Scholar 

  56. Ameha, A., Nielsen, O. J. & Larsen, H. O. Impacts of access and benefit sharing on livelihoods and forest: case of participatory forest management in Ethiopia. Ecol. Econ. 97, 162–171 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  57. Lescuyer, G. Sustainable forest management at the local scale: a comparative analysis of community forests and domestic forests in Cameroon. Small-scale For. 12, 51–66 (2013).

    Google Scholar 

  58. Guiang, E. S. & Castillo, G. Trends in forest ownership, forest resoures tenure and institutional arrangements in the Philippines: Are they contributing to better forest management and poverty reduction? (FAO, 2007).

  59. Blackman, A., Corral, L., Lima, E. S. & Asner, G. P. Titling Indigenous communities protects forests in the Peruvian Amazon. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 114, 4123–4128 (2017).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  60. Sikor, T. et al. Community Forestry in Asia and the Pacific: Pathway to Inclusive Development (RECOFTC - The Center for People and Forests, 2013).

  61. Wren-Lewis, L., Becerra-Valbuena, L. & Houngbedji, K. Formalizing land rights can reduce forest loss: experimental evidence from Benin. Sci. Adv. 6, eabb6914 (2020).

    Google Scholar 

  62. Ostrom, E. Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1990).

  63. Varughese, G. & Ostrom, E. The contested role of heterogeneity in collective action: some evidence from community forestry in Nepal. World Dev. 29, 747–765 (2001).

    Google Scholar 

  64. Lambin, E. F. & Meyfroidt, P. Global land use change, economic globalization, and the looming land scarcity. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 3465–3472 (2011).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  65. Scherr, S. J., White, A. & Kaimowitz, D. Making markets work for forest communities. Int. For. Rev. 5, 67–73 (2003).

    Google Scholar 

  66. Agrawal, A. Forests, governance, and sustainability: common property theory and its contributions. Int. J. Commons 1, 111–136 (2007).

    Google Scholar 

  67. Pagdee, A., Kim, Y. & Daugherty, P. J. What makes community forest management successful: a meta-study from community forests throughout the world. Soc. Nat. Resour. 19, 33–52 (2006).

    Google Scholar 

  68. Hajjar, R. & Oldekop, J. A. Research frontiers in community forest management. Curr. Opin. Environ. Sustain. 32, 119–125 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  69. Methods (IFRI, 2013); http://ifri.forgov.org/resources/methods/

  70. Persha, L., Fischer, H., Chhatre, A., Agrawal, A. & Benson, C. Biodiversity conservation and livelihoods in human-dominated landscapes: forest commons in South Asia. Biol. Conserv. 143, 2918–2925 (2010).

    Google Scholar 

  71. Geist, H. J. & Lambin, E. F. Proximate causes and underlying driving forces of tropical deforestation. BioScience 52, 143–150 (2002).

    Google Scholar 

  72. Rana, E., Thwaites, R. & Luck, G. Trade-offs and synergies between carbon, forest diversity and forest products in Nepal community forests. Environ. Conserv. 44, 5–13 (2017).

    Google Scholar 

  73. Liaw, A. & Wiener, M. R Package ‘randomForest’ (The Comprehensive R Archive Network, 2018).

  74. Breiman, L. Random forests. Mach. Learn. 45, 5–32 (2001).

    Google Scholar 

  75. Genuer, R., Poggi, J. & Tuleau-Malot, C. Variable selection using random forests. Pattern Recognit. Lett. 31, 2225–2236 (2010).

    Google Scholar 

  76. Harrell, F. Regression Modelling Strategies (Springer, 2015).

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the Evidence Based Forestry Initiative at the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the UK Department for International Development (DfID) for financing this research through its KNOWFOR programme grant. J.A.O. was supported through an EU FP7 Marie Curie Fellowship (FORCONEPAL). P.C. was supported through the CGIAR Research Program on Forest, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA), led by CIFOR. We also thank M. Vikas, M. Burbidge, A. Langeland and K. Gregory for their help in screening papers and extracting data and G. Steward, M. Grainger, M. Whittingham, R. Preziosi and E. W. Harris for their help with the statistical analysis.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Reem Hajjar, Johan A. Oldekop.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Reem Hajjar

  2. Forests and Livelihoods: Assessment, Research, and Engagement (FLARE) network, School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Reem Hajjar, Johan A. Oldekop & Peter Newton

  3. Global Development Institute, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Johan A. Oldekop

  4. Center for International Forestry Research, La Molina, Lima, Peru

    Peter Cronkleton

  5. Environmental Studies Program, University of Colorado Boulder, Sustainability, Energy and Environment Community, Boulder, CO, USA

    Peter Newton

  6. Center for International Forestry Research, Jalan CIFOR, Situ Gede, Bogor Barat, Indonesia

    Aaron J. M. Russell

  7. Global Green Growth Institute, Naypyitaw, Myanmar

    Aaron J. M. Russell

  8. Yale School of the Environment and Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Wen Zhou

Authors
  1. Reem Hajjar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Johan A. Oldekop
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Peter Cronkleton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Peter Newton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Aaron J. M. Russell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Wen Zhou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

R.H., J.A.O., P.N., A.J.M.R. and W.Z. conceived and designed the systematic review. R.H., J.A.O. and W.Z. conducted the review and data extraction. R.H. and J.A.O. conducted the analysis and drafted the manuscript. R.H., J.A.O., P.C., P.N., A.J.M.R. and W.Z. contributed to results interpretation and finalizing of the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Reem Hajjar or Johan A. Oldekop.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–9 and Tables 1–3.

Reporting Summary

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hajjar, R., Oldekop, J.A., Cronkleton, P. et al. A global analysis of the social and environmental outcomes of community forests. Nat Sustain 4, 216–224 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-00633-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-00633-y

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing