ABSTRACT

The community forestry (CF) program in Sri Lanka came forth in the early 1980 s following a global trend to conserve forest resources and provide benefits to the local community. However, very little is known about the role of CF on livelihoods in Sri Lanka. Therefore, this study evaluated the effect of the newly implemented CF program on community livelihoods in the intermediate zone of Sri Lanka by using a before-after control impact (BACI) design. Data were collected from 450 households and analyzed using the difference-indifference (DID) method. The results show that the CF program has improved livelihoods, with a significant (p < .001) positive effect on household conditions, income from livestock and non-timber forest products, savings, loans, state landholdings, informal education, trust, and collective aid actions. However, the increase in the number of CF members and the increase of demand for state land may threaten the future sustainability of the CF program. Despite, the CF program demonstrating very promising results in terms of livelihood improvement, more efforts are still needed to encourage alternative income sources to enable future generations to be less dependent on the forest.

摘要

斯里兰卡的社区林业 (CF) 计划于 1980 年代初随着保护森林资源和造福当地社区的全球趋势而出现。然而，人们对 CF 对斯里兰卡生计的作用知之甚少。因此，本研究通过使用前后控制影响 (BACI) 设计评估了新实施的 CF 计划对斯里兰卡中部地区社区生计的影响。从 450 个家庭收集数据，并使用差异无差异 (DID) 方法进行分析。结果表明，CF 计划改善了生计，显着 ( p< .001) 对家庭条件、牲畜和非木材林产品收入、储蓄、贷款、国有土地所有权、非正规教育、信任和集体援助行动产生积极影响。然而，CF 成员数量的增加和对国有土地需求的增加可能会威胁到 CF 计划的未来可持续性。尽管 CF 计划在改善生计方面显示出非常有希望的结果，但仍需要更多努力来鼓励替代收入来源，以使后代减少对森林的依赖。