scorematching approach. The empirical results indicate that the impact
of community participation in forest management has positive and significant
effects across all the four matching algorithms. The average
treatment affect for the treated (ATT) are Ngultrum 2605–3169 higher
for the participating households as compared to non-participating
households. Similarly, the results for poverty are negative and significant
in all the fourmatching algorithms. The results for poverty indicate
that households participating in the community forest management have a lower food poverty level: in the range of 5–12 percentage points.
The food security levels are high: in the range of 12%–19%. Hence, it can
be concluded that community participation in forest management can
help to increase the household income and reduce poverty among participant
households. As discussed above, one-third of Bhutanese are living
below the poverty line, so promoting community forest
management in the country can be an effective policy instrument for
poverty eradication and improvement of overall living standards.