Governments are legally formalizing an increasing number of community forests by sharing and transferring tenure rights over state-owned forestland in an effort to reduce deforestation. However, there has been little evidence on whether their conservation effectiveness could be further strengthened through formalization. In Thailand, the Royal Forest Department began to register community forests in 2000. The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of community forests in moderating the impact of deforestation pressures, highlighting the intrinsic ability of communities to protect their forests, and the effects of a legal formalization. In a spatial evaluation approach, statistical matching and fixed-effects models were used to analyze the effect of community-based forest conservation and its formalization on deforestation rates. Each analysis was conducted in provincial areas sampled from northern, north-eastern, and southern Thailand (680 community forests) to compare the impact of varying levels of deforestation pressure over a 14-year period from 2000 to 2014. The large majority of sampled communities protected their forests against substantial deforestation during the entire observation period, with 82 % experiencing less than 1 ha of deforestation and 60.15 % experiencing no deforestation at all. The median relative deforestation rate over this period was 0.21 %, with an interquartile range of 1.82 %. Their efforts reduced the likelihood of forest loss in regions of high deforestation pressure from approximately 30 % to almost zero. In contrast, the threat of deforestation did not significantly change after a formal registration. These findings were similar across different regions despite their biophysical and socio-economic differences. These findings suggest that while community efforts are central to forest conservation, the benefits of formalization in enhancing communal efforts appear to be subtle and thus remain inconclusive in the current context. Registered community forests are still affected by forest encroachment despite their successful conservation efforts. Thus, communities require stronger support from forest officials and local law enforcement agencies in both legal and technical capacities.

中文翻译：

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以社区为基础的森林管理缓解了泰国森林砍伐压力的影响


政府通过分享和转让国有林地的权属权利，将越来越多的共有林合法化，以减少森林砍伐。然而，几乎没有证据表明它们的保护效果是否可以通过正规化进一步加强。在泰国，皇家林业局于 2000 年开始登记共有林。本研究的目的是评估社区森林在缓解森林砍伐压力影响方面的有效性，强调社区保护森林的内在能力，以及法律正规化的影响。在空间评估方法中，使用统计匹配和固定效应模型来分析基于社区的森林保护及其正规化对森林砍伐率的影响。每项分析均在泰国北部、东北部和南部（680 个共有林）的省级地区进行，以比较 2000 年至 2014 年 14 年期间不同程度的森林砍伐压力的影响。在整个观察期间，绝大多数抽样社区都保护了他们的森林免受大规模森林砍伐，其中 82% 的社区经历了不到 1 公顷的森林砍伐，60.15% 的社区根本没有经历过森林砍伐。在此期间，相对森林砍伐率中位数为 0.21 %，四分位距为 1.82 %。他们的努力将森林砍伐压力高地区的森林损失的可能性从大约 30% 降低到几乎为零。相比之下，森林砍伐的威胁在正式登记后并没有显着变化。尽管存在生物物理和社会经济差异，但不同地区的调查结果相似。 这些发现表明，虽然社区努力是森林保护的核心，但正规化在加强社区努力方面的好处似乎是微妙的，因此在当前背景下仍无定论。尽管已登记的共有林在保护方面取得了成功，但仍受到森林侵占的影响。因此，社区需要森林官员和地方执法机构在法律和技术方面提供更有力的支持。