HIGHLIGHTS The Institutional Analysis and Development Framework of Ostrom was used for the study. Governance structures' effects on the ‘action situations' and outcomes of community forests was explained. The sustainability of the community forests was strongly influenced by local institutional arrangements. Potential negative effects of big group size and higher wealth heterogeneity were overcome by well-developed local operational rules. Unclear boundary rules and the exclusion of forest-dependent households induced conflicts. SUMMARY The study focuses on the importance of institutional factors for the different governance structures of community forestry in Myanmar. The village forest management (VFM) model and sub-village forest management (SVFM) model were characterised using the Institutional Analysis and Development framework of Ostrom (2011) and analysed for how the governance structures influenced the action situation (actors and actions related to management) and the outcomes. The VFM model, despite its bigger group size and smaller forest area, performed better than the SVFM model due to its well-established local institutional arrangements. The inclusion of all villagers in collective actions and equitable benefit sharing in the VFM model reduced conflicts and improved outcomes. In contrast, individual utilisation of community forest patches by only small number of user group members in the SVFM model, in combination with unclear social and physical boundary rules, reduced its sustainability. Further research relating to the governance models as well as other factors is recommended.