community forest in nepal

Community forestry has had a significant beneficial impact on forest cover and

slowed rates of deforestation in Nepal. The area covered by national forests and

protected area systems, which includes national parks, wildlife reserves, hunting

reserves, conservation areas and buffer-zones (BZs) is about 5.83 million hectares,

representing 39.6% of the total land area of the country. (DFRS 1999) The forest area

has decreased at an annual rate of 1.7%, whereas forests and shrub-land together

decreased by an annual rate of 0.5% during the period 1978 to 1994 (DFRS 1999).

A recent study of twenty Terai in the plains region of Nepal shows that the rate of

deforestation has substantially decreased (from 8,000 to 800 hectares per year) due

mainly to the implementation of community forestry.

The Community Forest user groups (CFUGs) is an independent and self

governing entity formed by a number of households living near a particular forest area

and legally recognized by the Forest Act of 1993. The group is responsible for the

management of a particular community forest handed over to them. The constitution

of the user groups controls the democratic functioning of the user groups. The

community forest user group members have the rights given by the legislation and as

mentioned in the operational plan. They can use the forest products internally at a

price fixed by the groups themselves, and also sell the surplus forest products to

outsiders at market prices. They also have their own group fund, and the income from

the sale of forest products and any other source has to be deposited in that fund. The

fund can be utilized for forest protection and community development activities.

A committee of CFUGs is normally formed by election or selected by the user

members for effective implementation of day-to-day activities. The committee is

comprised of about 11 members and they constitute the executive wing of a CFUG.

The committee has no particular rights according to the forest act and rules. However,

they exercise the rights as authorized by the user groups and as mentioned in the

operational plan. It has been reported that most of the executive members of the

CFUGs are elites or wealthy, and they do not necessary represent the interests of the

poor, women and socially disadvantaged members of the group.