Variation of financial benefits from provisioning ecosystem services between nearby and distant users in partnership forest management in Nepal

HIGHLIGHTS Timber, fuelwood, and fodder are the most important provisioning services in Partnership Forest Management. Nearby users placed fuelwood as the most important while distant users ranked timber as the most vital provisioning service. Distant users benefit more from timber while nearby users benefit more from fuelwood and fodder. Home-to-forest distance, landholding size and livestock units of the users are the major factors impacting the financial benefits. Distance to the forest from the settlement is positively associated with benefits from the timber and negatively associated with fuelwood and fodder collection. SUMMARY Partnership Forest Management (PFM) in Nepal was initiated to balance the supply of forest products between nearby and distant users' communities in the Terai region of Nepal. This study in Buddha Shanti Partnership forest analyzed the financial benefits of provisioning services and identified the socio-economic attributes influencing such benefits. A financial analysis of provisioning services was carried out using user prices outlined in the Operational Plan of the forest and on market-price-based approaches. This shows that timber provided more benefits to distant users, while nearby users have reaped more financial gains from fuelwood and fodder. Analysis revealed that home-to-forest distance, along with landholdings and livestock unit are the major factors impacting the overall financial benefits. This shows that the inclusion of distant users in PFM has provided financial benefits from provisioning services to those users.