Beyond money: Does REDD+ payment enhance household's participation in forest governance and management in Nepal's community forests?

•We examined household's participation in forest governance and management in the community forests under REDD+ pilot project.•Socio-economic factors such as education, family size, agricultural land holdings are determinants of local participation.•Distance from a household to the community forests influence household's participation in benefit provision.•The economic incentive does not influence household's participation in community forest governance and management.

Incentives can enhance community participation in conservation programs, but our understanding of how an economic incentive influences the participation of households in forest management is limited. REDD+ (Reducing Emission for Deforestation and forest Degradation)-a climate change mitigation mechanism initiated by international communities-provides payments to developing countries for better conservation of their forests. The REDD+ pilot project was implemented in community forests of Nepal through which REDD+ payment was distributed to the households involved in forest conservation. We examine whether REDD+ payments enhance participation of households in forest conservation, benefit provision, policy making, community services and capacity building programs in community forests of Nepal. Our results show that socio-economic factors such as education, family size, agricultural land holdings, and biophysical factors such as distance from respondent's household to the affiliated community forest are more likely to determine the participation in community forest management rather than economic incentive provided by the REDD+ pilot project.