Evaluation of good governance in a participatory forestry program: A case study in Madhupur Sal forests of Bangladesh

Participatory forestry programs in Bangladesh have been implemented since 1980’s to ensure forest conservation along with empowerment of local people, who depend on forest resources. Despite the establishment of legal and institutional frameworks for devolving a meaningful authority to local people, participatory forestry in Bangladesh has been facing many governance challenges. Therefore local people involvement in forest governance needs to be evaluated. A quantitative and qualitative research method has been applied to investigate a forest governance framework for evaluating the efficacy of participatory forestry in Bangladesh. Field data were collected by semi-structured interview of 120 local forest participants using scoring of qualitative data on a point scale (1–5).The study was based on the proposed modified framework for evaluation of good governance in terms of participation, transparency and efficiency. Analysis of data revealed that participation in benefit sharing received the highest score (3.90), while the lowest in the management committee meeting (2.12). Transparency in decision-making process received the lowest score (2.42). Similarly efficiency in handling tree farming fund (TFF) has the lowest score (2.35). In overall governance level, participation received the highest score (3.12), while transparency received the lowest (2.72). Findings indicate that poor governance still exists in participatory forestry program because of low level of participation and lack of transparency in handling tree farming fund (TFF). Therefore pragmatic approaches like strengthening monitoring mechanism, providing incentives for rule compliances need to be adopted to harness the benefit of good governance of a participatory forestry program. The findings of this study would be useful to forest policy-makers, development official and local forest practitioners in formulating effective policies for participatory forest management programs in Bangladesh and other developing countries. Our finding has also an implication on forest governance discourse in participatory forest management regimes.