Afforestation and forest restoration have been central to emerging global strategies for climate change mitigation. Based on a framed field experiment (FFE) conducted in the Uttara Kannada region in Karnataka, India, this study investigates whether monetary incentives could effectively promote afforestation and what the likely distributional consequences are. The FFE set-up was designed to provide respondents with choices on planting native or commercial trees in their village common forest. The native trees were associated with higher risk of survival compared to commercial trees. They also provided a mix of monetary and non-monetary benefits which differed across three variations in the experimental design. We find that monetary payments for planting native species worked better when combined with non-monetary benefits. Also, private tenurial rights mediated responses to monetary incentives. The results highlight how heterogeneous interests within the community could play an important role in determining effectiveness and distributional outcomes of afforestation policy.