Chitwan Feb. 20:Nicknames given to poor families like ‘firewood-seller’, “forest-encroacher” and ‘forest destroyer’ are now a tale of gone era, thanks to the concept of lease forestry with technology, training and assistance to receive loans.
Among the 36 VDCs in Chitwan district, six are fortunate enough to have the programme to rehabilitate degraded government forest lands for poverty alleviation. The basic features of this lease forestry is that there is a community agreement in assigning government lands to poor people, organized as well functioning lease-hold groups that are responsible for developing and protecting these lands. These groups also share the benefits and burdens and government investment is done in skill development and awareness raising schemes of rural people.
Sheela Nath Jha, Assistant Forest officer, says “A total of 468.3 hectre of lands has been given away to poor peasants on lease for 40 years.”
“This land was degraded and was prone to encroachment from people living in the surrounding areas, but now they have been cultivated and the living standard of the people has also risen,” he states.
Not only cultivation of land but other income generating works have also been popular with these peasants. Bee farming is one such preoccupation. Hem Bahadur Dallakoti Chetri, a been farmer says that annually he produces six tonnes of honey and sells it with an annual income of Rs. three hundred thousand. An average monthly income of Rs. twentyfive thousand surprised this scribe while visiting his backyard and seeing the honey combs! “Two different varieties of bees Meliphera and Apis-serena have changed my life,” Chhetri smiles.
Even Rameswor Koirala, main branch officer of Agriculture Development Bank, Bharatpur is confident of receiving back all the loans that the bank has given away to the peasants of Kavilas and Morak VDCs. “The lease-hold concept has been very successful in Chitwan and is today one of the primary catalysts of poverty alleviation in the area,” he says.
The co-ordination mechanism among the department of Forest (DOF), the Department of Livestock Services (DLS), Agriculture Development Bank (ADBN) and Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC) has been practical enough not to go to nitty-gritty but nonetheless, seeks active support and participation of individual farmers in the areas. At district level, a body called the District Co-ordination Committee (DCC) has been formed. The District Forest Officer is the coordinator of the body. Other members are the ADBN branch manager, Veterinary officer, livestock officer, local development officer, women development officer, assistant chief district officer and one elected member of the District Development Committee who is responsible for the forestry sector. Two lease-hold members (one male and one female) are also members of the committee. Monitoring of lease-hold forestry activities is done by this body on quarterly and annual basis.