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Weak forest governance is posited as a key underlying driver of deforestation and forest degradation, but empirical evidence of this linkage is scarce. Many related studies capture the de jure (legal) conditions and miss out the de facto (implementation practices on the ground), particularly when considering the proximate drivers and other factors of deforestation. However, this is central for identifying the specifics of governance for curbing deforestation and forest degradation. We analyse the influence of de facto governance quality on deforestation, accounting for proximate drivers and other factors using stepwise regression. We further compare deforestation rates and drivers across different governance arrangements with differing institutions, tenure and forest access restrictions using Wilcoxon tests to derive conclusions for promising policy instruments that address deforestation. Data for the analysis were …