Factors influencing people's participation in the forest management program in Burkina Faso, West Africa

In attempts to foster sustainable forest management practices, participation of local communities has become widely recognized as a better alternative than the traditional protectionist approach. This paper analyzed factors influencing local people's participation in forest management program in Sissili and Ziro provinces, southern Burkina Faso based on data collected through a household survey of 165 members of forest management groups using factor analysis and multiple regression. Factor analysis resulted in a three-factor solution, which accounted for 64.82% of the total variance. Participation in decision-making, followed by participation in forest conservation and economic benefits were found to be the main factors influencing participation in the forest management program. Gender, household size, income source, land tenure status and technical assistance also appeared to influence members' participation in the program. The results indicate that participatory management program can be enhanced by changing the administrative structure of forest management groups in order to empower members in decision-making processes. In addition, increasing women's participation and more equitable benefit-sharing among user groups are essential in improving the success of the participatory forest management program. Thus, policies reforms to improve the structure of the forest management groups and to establish equitable benefit-sharing mechanisms are essential to improve the participation of local people in the forest management program and, hence, require immediate attention.

Research Highlights
► People’s participation is related to their socio-economic and demographic attributes.
► The nature of the relationship between State Forest Service and local people influence participation.
► Existing forest policies should be revised to encourage people’s participation.