Community forestry program in Nepal represents arguably the most advanced and progressive model worldwide for the participatory management of natural resources. Though, the importance of community forest products to the households living in the rural areas has been increasingly recognised, the program is however, not yet able to fully ensure equitable, gender sensitive and poverty focused outcomes. Detailed analyses on the level of participation of user household in major forest management activities and the contribution of community forest resources to the livelihood of the rural poor, remains a critical gap. This study examines the factors influencing participation of user households in community forest management activities, namely; forest protection, resource utilization and decision-making. It also investigates the variation in degree of dependence on community forest income and how the dependence is conditioned by the key household characteristics among the user households.

The study was conducted in five selected forest user groups in Kaski district, Nepal. The analyses are based on primary data collected through household survey using a random sample of 176 respondents, comprising 69 males and 107 females. Office records, informal interviews and direct observation were the other sources of information. Chi-square tests and correlation analyses were employed to examine the strength and direction of relationship between the different selected social, economic and biophysical factors and participation. Three ordered logit regression models were developed to identify the determinants of participation of the households in forest protection, resource utilization and decision-making. Descriptive statistics, Gini-coefficients, and multiple regression analyses were employed to quantify the community forest income and the level of dependence on community forest resources.

The study suggests that participation in community forest management activities is dependent upon various social, economic and biophysical factors. Larger sized households, represented in forest user committee, who are from the larger forest user groups, managing smaller forest area and who own less land were the more active participants in forest protection. Women of the larger sized households, who reside close to the forest and market, showed their strong positive influence on participation in forest resource utilization. The key factors identified for the low participation of women and lower caste in decision making were education and traditional customs causing low representation in forest user group committee.

The result shows that community forest income contributed an average of 7.4% of the total household income, which is equal to 56% of the total forest income of the user households. The main sources of community forest income are fuelwood, fodder, ground grass and leafliter. The middle class households derived more than twice as much community forest income compared to the rich and the poor households. Households who own more livestock and have access to larger area of community forest are extracting higher value of community forest income. As the income level raised, the dependency on community forest income declined. Cash income, agricultural income and other forest income have the inverse relation both with community forest resource use and dependence. The community forest income is more important for the poor and had a strong equalizing effect on local income distribution. There is a need to establish the approach of community forestry with further emphasis on socio-economic objectives.