As one of the former Soviet republics, Tajikistan is facing a slow transition from a communist command-and-control
system to a more market oriented, decentralized and participatory forestry. In the last 25 years, the country's
forestry sector has undergone several reorganizations. In the process of a current reform, the overall aim of this
study is to gain a broader understanding of the current state of forest sector in Tajikistan. Our specific objectives
are a) to describe the current institutional network's complexity, (b) to analyze stakeholders' perceptions on the
key challenges towards good forest governance, (c) and give recommendations to tackle the key challenges, so
that important forest ecosystem services (ES) may be enhanced, thus, also contribute to the development of
the sector. We elaborate a generic framework, which simplifies complex interaction of governance and forests
ecosystem services. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through questionnaire-based interviews
with stakeholders of the forestry sector. The results indicate that the forestry sector is still far from representing
good forest governance, however the newly established structure seems to be a first step. Yet, challenges in establishing
sound legal frameworks, decision-making transparency, and implementation enforcement must still
be overcome. While it is too early and challenging to assess the impacts of forest governance on ES and vice
versa, the survey respondents highlight the importance of provisioning services for the development of the forest
sector. Given the post-Soviet background, almost all member countries developed along similar lines. Therefore,
the study results are not only of significance for Tajikistan, but also countries with similar history and socioeconomic
context.