ABSTRACT: This paper examined the effects of Participatory Forest Management (PFM) on people’s livelihoods around the South Nguru in Mvomero District where two Participatory Forest Management approaches namely: Joint Forest Management (JFM) and Community Based Forest Management (CBFM) were adopted. Data were collected from 200 households randomly selected from the villages of Kanga, Mziha and Difinga using structured questionnaires. The collected data were analyzed using paired sample T-test to examine the effects of Participatory Forest Management on people’s livelihoods before and after the adoption of these approaches. The results revealed that CBFM had more significant effects on livelihood improvement compared to JFM, mainly due to the fact that in CBFM approach, the communities had upper hand on the use of forest resources such as timber, poles and logs. These consequently improved services like education, health, water and roads in villages where CBFM is practiced. Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that, in order for communities to manage and use forest sustainably, more emphasize be on CBFM approach as communities involved have more access to forest resources that can be used for their livelihood improvement.