Abstract

Many countries have adopted policies supported community forestry. Trends towards community empowerment, livelihood improvement and decentralized decision-making are being done by providing more rights to forest dependent people. However, empirical data to support clear understanding on the correlation between resource rights and wellbeing or poverty are missing. The paper provides an analytical approach to figuring out forest resource rights and their connections to wellbeing. Twenty seven cases of community forestry in Asia, Africa and Latin America were selected, clustered and analyzed using non-linear principle component analysis. We found there was correlation between rights of forest resources and wellbeing although was not very strong. There was also connection between income and equity as well as between equity and sustainability of forest. This implies that giving more rights to local people is not enough for improving wellbeing without facilitating for better institution and governance.

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