The concept of ecosystem services is influencing how environmental stakeholders pursue dual conservation and community development goals. While rapidly growing in popularity, the ecosystem services approach has been criticized for adopting a homogenous approach to communities and failing to consider social diversity and associated power structures influencing access to benefits. In this paper, we adopt an environmental justice lens to analyse access to ecosystem services in a case study of community forestry in Nepal. Using mixed methods, our disaggregated analysis shows that access to ecosystem services is differentiated by social characteristics such as caste, income and gender with uneven distributive outcomes and participation. High-income groups were able to disproportionately access the benefits despite the social equity provisions built into policy and institutional structures. Our study shows that some of the protections oriented at assisting disadvantaged groups were experienced as onerous and should be amended if they are to have beneficial outcomes. In highlighting entrenched inequities, we argue that the ecosystem services approach needs to make environmental justice more central to avoid further marginalising the marginalized, and have far and just outcomes. The current emphasis on aggregated analysis may contribute little to practically implementing programs that will contribute to sustainable socio-ecological wellbeing.

生态系统服务的概念正在影响环境利益相关者追求双重保护和社区发展目标的方式。在迅速普及的同时，生态系统服务方法因对社区采用同质方法而没有考虑到影响获得利益的社会多样性和相关权力结构而受到批评。在本文中，我们采用环境正义的视角来分析尼泊尔社区林业的案例研究中获得生态系统服务的机会。使用混合方法，我们的分类分析显示，获得社会生态服务的方式因种姓，收入和性别等社会特征而有所不同，分配结果和参与不均。尽管在政策和体制结构中建立了社会公平规定，但高收入群体仍然能够按比例获得福利。我们的研究表明，一些旨在帮助处境不利群体的保护措施经历了繁重的工作，如果要获得有益的结果，应予以修改。在强调根深蒂固的不平等时，我们认为，生态系统服务方法需要使环境正义更加核心，以避免进一步边缘化边缘化群体，并且要取得公正的结果。目前对综合分析的重视可能对实际实施那些对可持续社会生态福祉有贡献的计划几乎没有帮助。我们的研究表明，一些旨在帮助处境不利群体的保护措施经历了繁重的工作，如果要获得有益的结果，应予以修改。在强调根深蒂固的不平等时，我们认为，生态系统服务方法需要使环境正义更加核心，以避免进一步边缘化边缘化群体，并且要取得公正的结果。目前对综合分析的重视可能对实际实施那些对可持续社会生态福祉有贡献的计划几乎没有帮助。我们的研究表明，一些旨在帮助处境不利群体的保护措施经历了繁重的工作，如果要获得有益的结果，应予以修改。在强调根深蒂固的不平等时，我们认为，生态系统服务方法需要使环境正义更加核心，以避免进一步边缘化边缘化群体，并且要取得公正的结果。目前对综合分析的重视可能对实际实施那些对可持续社会生态福祉有贡献的计划几乎没有帮助。