Being limited in supply but accessible for community usage, the sustainable management of common pool resources is still an important question facing both development planners and the academia. Experiences from the community forestry programme in Nepal, and elsewhere, have so far indicated that poorer households are still marginalized even if resources are managed under community ownership. In this paper, I seek to analyse the socioeconomic attributes of households that determine labour allocation decisions for forest product collection activities. This could help better understand why poorer groups have not been benefited from the management of community forests. I will then highlight the need for more effective policy and institutional interventions that could help ensure efficient and equitable access to the local level natural resource base.