Community Forestry at Work in Nepal
7/23/97
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Headline: Community Forestry at Work in Nepal
Source: The Environment News Service
Date: 7/23/97
Author: Deepak Gajurel
Copyright 1997: ENS, Inc.
KATHMANDU, Nepal, July 23, 1997 (ENS) - A feeling of
ownership amongst the people is vital when it comes to
conservation efforts. Successful forest conservation by
people in Nepal has proved that until or unless the people
in general are involved in conservation and believe it to
be to the public benefit, no desirable achievement can be
reached. The people will not come forward to work on
conservation until they are guaranteed that they
themselves will benefit by their work.
A new wave of community forestry in Nepal is an important
departure from the traditional strong-arm protection of
forests by the government. The approach of involving local
people in conservation effort is proving successful.
Before the introduction of the concept of community
forestry in the late 1980s, people had no say in their
nearby forests and had to enter the jungle in the darkness
of night illegally.
Under the government controlled forest management system,
Nepal's green cover has been depleted quickly over the
last few decades. This rapid deforestation led a 1976
World Bank report to predict that Nepal would have
no forest in 20 years.
But, 20 years later, the World Bank's projection proved to
be wrong. Decreased below 100 thousand hectares (247,100
acres) of forested land in the early 1980s, Nepal now has
more than 350 thousand hectares (864,850 acres) of forests
protected and managed by the people as community forests.
Government controlled forest is not included in this
figure.
The total forested area in Nepal is 5.5 million hectares
(13,590,500 acres), almost 37 percent of the country's
total land mass.
Nepal has experienced three phases in forest management -
private ownership from the unification of the Kingdom
until 1951; nationalisation from 1953 to 1987; and
populist or community forestry from 1990 onward. The
earlier two phases were proved wrong for proper
conservation, while participatory conservation of forests
under a community forestry plan has proved to be the most
effective method.
Before 1951 all the forests were privately owned, mostly
by the ruling Rana family. Forests were nationalised in
1957. The Forest Act of 1960 ruled that even a single log
of timber must not be collected without prior permission
from the government. People were forced to think that the
forests did not belong to them. So, a haphazard illegal
cutting of forests continued until the introduction of the
concept of community forestry.
The factors behind the success of the community forestry
movement are many. "First and foremost, the people are
given ownership over the forest. They have been granted
the right of profit sharing, and the people have a clear-
cut action plan which binds them to the forest," says
environmental engineer Anil Chitrakar.
Though community protection of forests began some two
decades ago, it was formalised only in 1990. In 1973, some
enthusiastic people of the Sindhupalchowk district, 50
kilometers (30 miles) east of Kathmandu, formed a Forest
Security Committee and protected a patch of nearby forest.
This served as a success story to replicate elsewhere in
the country. The policy and decision makers came to
realise that natural resources like forests can only be
conserved and best utilised if the people themselves
participate in these efforts.
"And the people only come forward if they are made to
think that the nature belongs to them," says Chitrakar.
After the restoration of multi-party democracy in the
Kingdom in 1990, a Special Act was promulgated to regulate
the concept of community forestry. The Community Forestry
Act of 1993 provides that any patch of forest can be
handed over to the local people. Before the hand-over
takes place, a users group has to be formed from among the
potential users.
The users group deserves all rights over the forest handed
over to them. It can plant trees, and consume or sell the
forest products. The Act and the Forest Regulations have
the provision that a Forest Action Plan should be prepared
by each forest users group. The community acts in
accordance with the Action Plan that has to be ratified
unanimously by a meeting of all the users.
Botanist Shailendra Pokrarel sees a better future for
community forestry in Nepal. "But a large scale of income
generating programmes should be initiated. Such programmes
should be directed towards fulfilling the local needs of
the people," he says.
The government can never take the forest back once it is
handed over to the people. However, it can initiate
restructuring of any users group's executive committee, in
case of misuse or mis-management of the forest, and it can
give directions and technical assistance to the people.
International organisations have also generously given
technical expertise to the community forestry programme.
As of early 1997, more than 350 hectares (864 acres) of
forest land have been handed over to 5,500 forest user
groups throughout the country. The people are managing the
forests, utilising the wood themselves, making money out
of forest products and using that money for community
welfare. Some forest users groups cultivate forest land to
produce a number of cash crops such as ginger, potato,
cardamom, and bamboo.
Pokharel suggests, "Training in silviculture, account
keeping, study tours and cash support programmes can
create enthusiasm for the poverty trodden Nepal villagers
who are involved in the management of forests."
The Community Forest Users Groups have formed a federation
to operate more smoothly and effectively. Forests in a
number of villages have become so dense that many species
of wild animals, like tiger, leopard, deer and bear are
now encountered frequently.