Effectiveness of Community Forest Management at reducing
deforestation in Madagascar
a b s t r a c t
Community Forest Management (CFM) is a widespread conservation approach in the tropics. It is also
promoted as a means by which payment for ecosystem services schemes can be implemented. However,
evidence on its performance is weak. We investigated the effectiveness of CFM at reducing deforestation
from 2000 to 2010 in Madagascar. To control for factors confounding impact estimates, we used statistical
matching. We also contrasted the effects of CFM by whether commercial use of forest resources is
allowed or not. We cannot detect an effect, on average, of CFM compared to no CFM, even when we
restricted the sample to only where information suggests effective CFM implementation on the ground.
Likewise, we cannot detect an effect of CFM where commercial use of natural resources is allowed.
However, we can detect a reduction in deforestation in CFM that does not permit commercial uses,
compared to no CFM or CFM allowing commercial uses. Our findings suggest that CFM and commercial
use of forest resources are not guarantees of forest conservation and that differentiating among types of
CFM is important