This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. Publication rights with Alkhaer Publications. Published at: http://www.ijsciences.com/pub/issue/2016-03/ DOI: 10.18483/ijSci.966; Online ISSN: 2305-3925; Print ISSN: 2410-4477  Yali Wen (Correspondence)  wenyali2003@163.com  0086-13-910531263, Fax: 010-62338109 Exploring Socioeconomic Impacts of REDD-plus Pilot Program to Rural Livelihoods: Comparative Study of Yedashae and Oaktwin Townships in Bago Region of Myanmar Kay Zin Than 1 , Yali Wen 1 , Zaw Zaw 2 1 School of Economics and Management, Beijing Forestry University, No. (35), Qinghua East Road, Haidian District, Beijing, P.R. China, Post code –100083 2 Forest Research Institute, Forest Department, Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar Abstract: Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD-plus) was evolved to provide incentives for the enhancement of carbon stock through conservation of forests. There are concerns about the potential impacts of REDD-plus on local livelihoods. This article accesses the socioeconomic impacts of two townships within the REDD-plus pilot project through using households’ data from control and intervention villages. It found that REDD-plus pilot program had no significant impact on livelihood resources but relatively contributed to some extent for the development of physical capitals, particularly in terms of community awareness raising in intervention villages. The study revealed that 63% of households in intervention villages were pursuing “Forests and Daily Labor” Livelihood Strategy (LS) in which 54% of households were using “Human and NTFPs” capitals. Meanwhile, in control villages, 27% of households were following “Forest and Wage Labor” Livelihood strategies (LS) in which 31% of households were depending on forest resources. Most of the households in intervention villages depend on the non-timber forest resources (NTFPs) for their livelihoods and they do not have enough income for their welfare. For control villages, households were pursuing daily labor for their livelihood and they also had to depend on forest resources for their subsistence and commercial purposes. This study also found that the sole dependency of forest resources for livelihood could not create standalone livelihood strategy in the area of high poverty and forest dependency rate. This study recommends Community Forestry (CF) as a policy framework which should be used for the integration of REDD-plus activities to the community livelihood development. Moreover, this study encourages inter-sectoral dialogue for the cooperation among agencies, line- departments to ensure REDD-plus implementation benefits to local communities’ livelihood resources. Keywords: REDD-plus, socioeconomic impacts, livelihood strategies, livelihood resources, pilot program, Myanmar 1. Introduction The Republic of the Union of Myanmar, with a total area of 676,577 km 2 , is situated mainly in the tropic of continental Southeast Asia. Ecosystems with lots of genetic diversities can be found in Myanmar’s forests because of the tropical monsoon circulating system and its varied topography throughout the country. Among them, about 1,180 species of vascular plants including angiosperms and gymnosperms, 96 species of bamboo, 37 species of rattan and 841 species of medicinal plants have been recorded so far (Forest Department, 2014). According to forest resource assessment (2015), about 42.92 percent of the total land area is still covered with forest. Forest resources are the most critical and principal suppliers for livelihoods of people and national economy as well. The total population of the country is about 51 millions and 68 % of this population were classified by the World bank as rural people who residing in areas through depending heavily on the forests for their basic needs, especially for shelter, fodder, fuel wood, seasonal