Resource information
Using data from Chimaliro and Liwonde forest reserves in Malawi, this paper investigates how forest dependence influences households' decision to participate in forest co-management programme. The key question of this paper is: What makes people participate in the forest comanagement (FCM) programme in Malawi? In particular, how does forest dependence (share of forest income) affect households’ participation decisions?The authors find that where forests primarily have a gap filling or safety net role in Chimaliro, high forest dependency induces higher rates of participation. However, with more commercial forest uses and a more heterogeneous social context as in Liwonde, high forest dependency reduces the incentives for participation.The findings point to the need to design parallel interventions alongside the forest co-management program in order to provide supplementary income sources to participants and increase the incentives for participation.
