Community forestry is an approach for mitigating deforestation
and forest degradation by managing the forest resources for benefitting
neighboring communities. Monetary benefits and costs are
associated in a community forest during conservation and management
of a forest. For sustainable forest management, the benefit
should be more than cost which is a contesting issue of research.
So, this study was conducted in a community forest of the central
part of Nepal with the help of 80 household surveys and a
focus group discussion. The firsthand information collected at the
site is complimented by forest product harvest and cost-related
secondary information. It was observed that the total annual harvest
of timber was 60 cubic feet, pole was 8 cubic feet, firewood
was 1,110 Bhari,1 fodder was 4,388 Bhari, and leaf litter was
590 Bhari. To manage a forest, people were involved in fencing,
thinning, and meetings. Management cost was six times higher
than administration cost. The benefit from firewood and fodder
was more due to the dependency of people in a forest for enhancing
their livelihood. The higher value of benefit cost ratio indicates that
the Community Forest User Group benefited from community forest
management.