Table 2. Descriptive statistics.
| Overall forest (N = 620) | CF (N = 325) |
NCF (n = 295) |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Variables Measured at Plot Level | |||
| Altitude (m) directly measured using altimeters | 748.20±25.20 | 981.67±33.77 | 485.13±31.69 |
| Slope (degree) based on direct measurement | 15.40±0.53 | 20.37±0.68 | 9.87±0.71 |
| Moisture gradient (1–5 = low-high based on aspect, with south-facing having lowest moisture) | 3.38±0.05 | 3.14±0.07 | 3.65±0.07 |
| Presence of soil erosion (yes/no) as noted by field enumerators | 158(25.5%) | 78(24.0%) | 80 (27.1%) |
| Average tree height (m) measured using clinometers | 11.60±0.22 | 11.17±0.29 | 12.13±0.34 |
| Average tree DBH (cm) measured using D-tapes | 21.11±0.47 | 19.62±0.57 | 22.84±0.77 |
| Canopy cover (%) subjectively assessed by trained enumerators | 49.70±0.93 | 48.66±1.21 | 51.09±1.43 |
| Tree density (no. ha-1) | 570.11±18.14 | 629.17±27.75 | 503.46±22.40 |
| Sapling density (no. ha-1) | 491.73±22.04 | 512.92±35.67 | 471.19±25.07 |
| Regeneration density (no. ha-1) | 32316± 1369 | 29661± 1965 | 35420± 1896 |
| Presence of Shorea robusta (yes/no) | 350 (56.5%) | 145 (44.6%) | 205 (69.5%) |
| Broadleaved-conifer forest gradient (1 = broadleaved, 2 = mixed, 3 = conifer) | 1.39±0.02 | 1.53±0.03 | 1.22±0.03 |
| Normalized Difference Vegetation Index-NDVI, 1989 (0 = bare, 1 = green) computed from 1989 LANDSAT imagery | 0.2942±0.0022 | 0.2945±0.0030 | 0.2938± 0.0032 |
| Variables Measured at Forest or CFUG Level | |||
| Forests are in the hills (yes/no) from documents | 264 (42.58%) | 205 (63.08%) | 59 (20.00%) |
| Forests are in Terai (yes/no) from documents | 356 (57.5%) | 120 (36.92%) | 236 (80.00%) |
| Years of forest user group formation (no.) from survey | 11.2±0.20 | 10.10±0.26 | 12.43±0.28 |
| Number of forest users households from document | 295.82±101.09 | 295.80±182.70 | 295.85±88.44 |
| Forest area (ha) from CFUG documents (for CF) or directly measured using GPS measurements (for NCF) | 127.70±27.92 | 148.96±44.17 | 106.44±33.71 |
| Variables Measured at Household Level and Aggregated to the Forest or CFUG Level | |||
| Time required for 2-way travel from road to forest (1 = < 2 hours, 2 = 2 hours to half day; 3 = > half day) | 1.41±0.03 | 1.48±0.05 | 1.33±0.04 |
| Time required for 2-way travel to and from district headquarters to forest (1 = < 2 hours, 2 = 2 hours to half day; 3 = > half day) (reported by respondents) | 2.45±0.05 | 2.59±0.07 | 2.28±0.06 |
| Households living in the village for at least 2 generations (proportion | 0.748±0.011 | 0.821±0.014 | 0.668±0.017 |
| Indigenous/ethnic population (proportion) | 0.416±0.012 | 0.437±0.019 | 0.394±0.015 |
| Poor population (proportion) | 0.376±0.009 | 0.372±0.012 | 0.382±0.014 |
| Variables Calculated Based on Field Data | |||
| Per household forest area (ha) from CFUG documents (for CF) or directly measured using GPS measurements and communities’ records (for NCF) | 0.82±0.30 | 0.90±0.27 | 0. 47±0.32 |
Continuous and ordinal variables are presented as means ± standard errors of the mean; dichotomous variables are presented as n (%).