摘要
•This study of community forestry management regimes in the Hills of Nepal identifies access to resources and benefits, and enforcement of legal property rights as the key influential incentives that determine effective participation of resource users in resource governance.•The ordered probit analysis shows a significant positive association of participation with access to forests, secure property rights and social security and cohesion. Financial support to supplement household income and payment for environmental services have a high degree of association with participation, but they carry a negative coefficient with them. However, the statistical analysis shows an insignificant influence of local community infrastructure development on overall participation.•In the Middle Hills of Nepal, where discriminatory sociocultural norms prevail, distribution and operation of power among different social groups have greatly impacted the legal rights of the poor and lower castes, and their access to resources, and hence their effective participation in resource governance.•Transferring property rights to a group did not protect the rights of its poor and disadvantaged members. Thus, this study proposes proportional allocation of the most productive part of a community forest to a sub-group of the poor and disadvantaged members formed within a user group, and transference and enforcement of the legal property rights to the sub-group over the allocated forest in order to guarantee their greater access and participation in resource benefits and governance.