Community perceptions: A comparative analysis of community participation in forest management: FSC-certified and non-certified plantations in Mozambique

With the increasing expansion of large-scale forest plantations in developing countries, concerns are rising about relationships between plantations and local communities. Community participation in forest plantation management can improve relationships between forestry companies and adjacent communities and affect the distribution of benefits from plantations. The social dimension of the Forest Stewardship Council's (FSC) responsible forest management standard targets the participation of local communities in plantation management. Using household survey data from villages adjacent to plantations owned by two private forest companies in Mozambique, we assess households' perceptions about their participation in plantations' activities. We compare the perspectives of households in villages adjacent to FSC-certified plantations with those of households in villages adjacent to non-certified plantations. Our quantitative analyses show that communities adjacent to the certified plantations are more likely to perceive that they participate in activities of plantations. In terms of socio-economic characteristics, male-headed households and households with plantation employees were more likely than their counterparts to participate in plantations' activities. However, we did not find statistically significant relationships between the perceptions of communities near the certified plantations and those near the non-certified plantations regarding their satisfaction with their participation, the extent to which they consider the plantation a ‘friendly good neighbor’ and whether households have benefitted from the plantations. Our results suggest that market-based approaches of forest governance, such as forest management certification, can complement state policy towards responsible forest management.