Abstract:
Research background: Participatory Forest Management program (PFMP) is initiated to manage forest resources and
promote household participation to enhance their livelihood. In contrast, the long-term evaluation of many programs'
timing remains low attention. Thus, it is vital to measure livelihood impacts on membership duration associated with
the PFM program in Ethiopian farm households
Purpose of the article: To evaluate the impact of membership duration in participatory forest management on
livelihoods of program participating households in south-western Ethiopia. The results of the program's periodic
assessment data were analysed on the long-term effect of the activities of forest management members.
Methods: The study applied the generalized propensity score method. The research depends on cross-sectional survey
data collected in mid-2018 from 267 farm households from Sheka and Kafa zones of south-western Ethiopia. The
procedure matched families with similar covariates with different years of membership duration in the participatory
forest management program. The technique was used members' annual per capita expenditure as an indicator outcome
variable for measuring rural livelihood.
Findings, value-added & novelty: Impacts studies of PFMP on heterogeneous effects across different groups of
membership duration are scarce, and there is a research gap on how membership duration affects outcomes. Our study
addresses this gap by measuring the long-term evaluation of program outcomes and their impacts on the participatory
member households. Furthermore, the result revealed that the program's effects were initially low but positively affected
when approaching an optimum year of membership dose. The program's optimal duration of the membership dose was
11-12 years, and 4263.75 birrs were the optimal level of yearly household per capita consumption spending.
Recommendation: The results recommend more work on the participating household members by encouraging new
forest-related income sources and integrating the socio-economic network more closely with the forest's ecosystem
services. Although the relationship among participating members of households' longevity and income is substantial,
the program has been focused on the medium and longer duration of the forest program participating.
