Cover photos: Photos from the field work.

Responses to inefficiency of the state control over forests, has led to the enactment of a forest devolution policy to facilitate participation of local people in forest management. This thesis examines the processes of the making of forest devolution policy and its interpretation in practice through a study in Thua Thien Hue, North Central Coast of Vietnam. It analyzes the roles and power of the actors in implementing forest devolution. This thesis explores the influence of forest devo-lution on the distribution of the endowments, entitlements and thus on the live-lihoods of different socio-economic groups. Through exploring the effects of the change in forest property rights, the research aims to contribute to the debates on the contributions and limitations of forest devolution to rural poverty alleviation as well as forest management practices. The study applies both quantitative and qualitative approaches based on a household survey, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. The theoretical underpinnings for the research draws from policy analysis perspectives, the extende