It is prominently claimed that including the local community in forest management by adopting Collaborative Forest Management (CFM) approach could help for sustainable forest management. Therefore, information on its effectiveness is still needed for better planning in forest conservation. This study assessed the effectiveness of CFM on both forest status conditions and local community livelihoods in Mabira Central Forest Reserve (MCFR) in Uganda. A floristic survey was conducted to collect data on the species composition in the sites under CFM and Non-CFM. Also, interviews and focus group discussions were used to collect data on the socio-economic aspect of the adjacent local community. Forest species composition status was assessed using common alpha diversity indices (Species richness, Shannon Weiner index, and Simpson index), beta diversity (Jaccard Coefficient), structural vegetation parameters (tree density and basal area) and species Importance Value Index (IVI). Further, size class distribution was established for the two sites (CFM and Non-CFM). Regarding local community livelihood, descriptive and inferential statistics were used. Results revealed that the two sites have low similarity with the CFM site having low species diversity compared to Non-CFM site. The size class distribution of the site under CFM shows stable vegetation, suggesting good regeneration and recruitment potential. In contrary, the adjacent community livelihoods seemed to not be improved after the implementation of the
CFM approach. Their income has considerably decreased because most of their
activities were based on forest resources. We, therefore, argue that CFM approach should be updated and mixed with a top-down approach to improving forest status and local community livelihoods.