Devolution of forest tenure and forest growth

Forest conservation remains a major challenge in many developing countries, where institutional barriers contribute to deforestation and persistent poverty. This paper examines a forest tenure reform that devolved forest rights from village collectives to individual households and its impact on forest outcomes. Using two waves of nationwide village and household surveys, satellite imagery on land cover and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), and village-level meteorological records over a 10-year period, we evaluate the reform’s effects on forest coverage and quality. The results show that transferring tenure rights to households significantly increased forest coverage in villages. However, improvements in forest quality—measured by vegetation density (EVI)—emerge more slowly. The initial expansion of forest area through newly planted trees temporarily lowers average vegetation density, but canopy density increases as trees mature over time.