Harisharan Luintel|Randall Bluffstone|Robert M. Scheller
The effects of the Nepal community forestry program on biodiversity conservation and carbon storage
Portland State University|North Carolina State University
approximately 155 global forest controlled 1 billion local people area community control increasing however limited empirical evidence whether community control effective providing critical global ecosystem services biodiversity conservation carbon storage assess effectiveness one example communitycontrolled forest nepals community forestry program cfp providing biodiversity conservation carbon storage using data 620 randomly selected cfp noncfp forest plots apply robust matching method based covariates estimate whether cfps associated greater biodiversity conservation carbon storage results reveal significant positive effect cfp biodiversity robust influence unobserved covariates results also suggest significant negative effect cfp aboveground tree sapling carbon agc national scale 1511 mg c ha1 however cfp mixed effect carbon across geographic topographic regions forests different canopy covers though significant effects cfp agc lower altitudes terai hill regions closed canopies positive effects open canopies 2584 mg c ha1 lower slopes 2551 mg c ha1 negative effects higher altitudes 2281 mg c ha1 higher slopes 1772 mg c ha1 sensitivity analysis revealed positive effects robust unobserved covariates true negative results aggregate results demonstrate cfp effective forest management strategy contribute global ecosystem services biodiversity lesser extent carbon