The objectives of the present study are to (1) identify and analyze the factors influencing household participation
in community forestmanagement programs, and (2) assess the effects of community participation in forest management
on household income and poverty levels in Bhutan. The study is based on a comprehensive dataset of
4173 rural households from all the agro-ecological regions of Bhutan. The probit estimation on the factors
influencing household participation indicates that educated, young and wealthy households are more likely to
participate in the community forest management program. The propensity score matching (PSM) approach
was employed to correct for potential sample selection bias thatmay arise due to systematic differences between
the participant and non-participant households. The PSM analysis was carried out by employing different
matching algorithms i.e. nearest neighbor matching, kernel-based matching, radius matching and mahalanobis
metric matching. The empirical results indicate that participating households have higher income levels in the
range of Ngultrum 2605–3169. In addition, the study finds that the participation in community forest management
by households may reduce poverty in the range of 5–12 percentage point. The participating households
have higher food security levels in the range of 12%–19% as compared to non-participating households.