ABSTRACT
Community forestry is a largely successful community-based natural resource management program restoring degraded forests and improving people's livelihoods. Over the last half-century in Nepal, it has stood up as a strong forestry institution to address local environmental problems, meet forest product demand of the households in the communities, and contribute, to some extent, to livelihood improvement activities. Yet, the specific livelihood outcomes of community forestry are not well documented. Through literature review and participant observations, this chapter assesses livelihood outcomes of community forestry, including how institutional characteristics shape outcomes. Through the livelihood-centric analytical approach, the chapter covers five livelihood assets (human, social, financial, built, and natural) to understand the contributions of community forestry. Based on this analysis, the chapter argues that community forestry should be improvised to address the changing pattern of rural livelihood by focusing on empowerment, entrepreneurship, and employment opportunities through the mobilization of natural capital accumulated within the community forestry system.
