The livelihoods and socioeconomic circumstances of farmers in Pakistan's Peshawar Valley have been significantly impacted by social forestry, a paradigm that blends sustainable rural development with the management of forest resources. From the viewpoint of farmers, this study examines the state of social forestry practices and examines how they affect local farmers' income, employment prospects, access to resources, and community development. The study discovered through questionnaires, interviews, and field trips that social forestry has raised farmers' economic gains by supplying forest goods including fruit, fodder, and lumber while raising understanding of ecological preservation. Furthermore, community participatory management has increased the effectiveness of group efforts and strengthened farmers' rights to utilize natural resources. The study did discover, however, that a number of factors have hindered the advancement of social forestry, including inadequate funding, a lack of technical training, inadequate policy implementation, and restricted market channels. Since additional incentives are still required to encourage social forestry, some farmers are choosing traditional agriculture and are taking a wait- and-see approach to long-term advantages. According to the study, in order to guarantee the sustainability and equitable expansion of social forestry, the government should enhance policy support, offer financial subsidies and technical assistance, and enhance the market system. The Peshawar Valley can set an example for other areas by balancing ecological preservation with rural economic development through the optimization of the social forestry concept.
Zubair et al. (Tue,) studied this question.