Determinants of success of community forestry: Empirical evidence from Ethiopia

Because of inadequacies and often dismal outcomes associated with state-centric forest management, devolution of forest tenure rights to communities is suggested for achieving sustainable forest management. Based on data collected from 110 community forests covering four major regions of Ethiopia we empirically analyze the determinants of success of community forestry (CF) and characterize institutional attributes of community forests. A key question addressed in this paper is: what are the important characteristics and factors of successful community forestry? Improvements in subsistence value and commercial value of CF are the main attributes of success considered. Specifically we consider: (i) user group’s and forester’s ranking of forest condition, i.e., subsistence/commercial value of forest, and (ii) value of forest products harvested from the commons as indicators of success. We use Elinor Ostrom’s design principles to assess institutional strength of CF systems in addition to considering ecological, social and economic factors that may also influence success. Results show that the majority of both forest users and foresters view the CF toward subsistence rather than commercial value. Our results also show that a variety of factors are correlated with attributes of success. Access to infrastructure (specifically distance to nearest market and access to electricity), community attributes such as number of beneficiary households and forest dependency, and institutions (index of institutional design features) affect attributes of success positively. Ecological factors such as soil types particularly sand positively affect success while loam soil negatively affects success. Moreover, steeper slopes negatively affect success of CF. The findings contribute to the literature on the success of CF and highlight important implications for policy and development practice to promote CF.