This study quantifies the tangible, economic benefits of a nongovernmental organization's social forestry project to local people and analyzes the potential return from this investment in natural capital. The analysis was conducted in the Kumaun hill region of Uttaranchal, India, using participatory rapid appraisal, household survey, avoided cost method, and present value investment analysis.

Concepts of environmental conservation and management are directly linked to the practice of development. Development has been seen as not only an instrument to increase production, but also to remove poverty. But anti-poverty schemes in India have not been sustainable and are conditioned by the kind of finance available for their implementation.

High levels of ‘ecological poverty’ – defined as the lack of a healthy natural resource which is essential for human society’s survival and development – are a key cause of the economic poverty of the world’s rural poor.