More than two decades after the inception of community forestry in the country, there are visible changes in the rural landscape and the perception of communities. The conservation of forests has led to a drastic reduction in soil erosion and landslides. Rural Nepalese have easy access to the forest products they need for their livelihood. With a clear focus on conservation and protection, the community forestry program has also taught people the importance of local institutions and leadership. Despite the turmoil at the center, local communities have demonstrated that a people-centered approach to development can bring significant changes.
By KESHAB POUDEL
Members of the Kusum Community Forest Users Group of Bajrajogini Village Development Committee of Kathmandu district expect to generate more resources locally in the next couple of years. The community has planted medically valuable trees like chiraito on what was a denuded forest until a few years ago. Thanks to the support provided by the Bagmati Integrated Watershed Management Program, the villagers have an opportunity to protect their forest and generate part of the revenue they need.
A man collecting firewood : Success of community mobilization
A man collecting firewood : Success of community mobilization
Sudal area in Bhaktapur district, too, has a happy story to tell. Following the formation of the community user group, the local people have changed the face of the hill behind their village in Nagarkot. The villagers, whose local economy is dependent on milk sales, have seen a sudden surge in production.
The agriculture prospects of a community are directly linked to its proximity to forests. “Whether it is in the far-western district of Baitadi or Ilam in eastern Nepal, local communities have benefited from the community forestry program,” says Amrit Lal Joshi, technical adviser with the Community Forestry Division of the Natural Resources Management Sector Assistance Program (NARMSAP) of His Majesty’s Government/DANIDA. “In terms of the local economy and availability of forest products, we can see unbelievable changes in the villages. Unfortunately, nobody ever mentions these successes.”
Kusum and Sudal are not isolated cases of the substantial changes local initiatives in forest conservation have brought. The lives of thousands of villagers across country have been transformed through community forestry. The forest resources contribute to food security and provide commercial and employment opportunities for the poor. User groups are central not only to the conservation effort but also to the development of local governance.
Although forest user groups are small in terms of size and coverage, they are much better at local governance. There are few cases of the irregularities and misuse of fund that tend to dog elected local bodies.
“The community forestry program needs to be linked with income-generating activities to motivate the local population,” says Basanta Kumar Rimal, national coordinator of the Bagmati Integrated Watershed Management Project, which is supported by the European Union. “We are encouraging farmers to plant medically valuable plants to generate revenue and such incentives will further motivate the local population,” he adds. “More than 12 forest user groups of Makwanpur and Lalitpur districts have signed purchase agreements with Dabur-Nepal Ltd.”
Nepal’s forests are known for their bio-diversity and the plantation of medically valuable species will provide the local people an opportunity to increase their income. Although many user groups in the terai have already been generating revenue by selling commercially viable tree species, groups in the hills are yet to reap such benefits. Even the midst of market inaccessibility, community forests in remote parts of the country are making small but valuable amounts of money by selling their product for local consumption.
Many user groups generate their own budgets by harvesting forest products. In the hills, the user groups are relatively poor compared to those in the areas surrounding Kathmandu and in the terai. Whatever income they make, the user groups are spending it on running health camps, schools and other socially beneficial activities.
“The concept of community forestry is in the process of restoration. Now it is more focused on protection, but the coming challenges will be on management,” says Madhuri Karki, District Forest Officer in Bhaktapur. “As a district very close to the capital city, people here are not as enthusiastic as those in other parts of the country. But we have already formed 49 user groups and some are spending their income on running the health camp and other social activities.”
According to recent figures from the Community Forestry Division of the Department of Forest, there are 11,095 forest user groups, which possess 854,389 forest areas. The group includes 1,208,943 households. According to the National Census 2001, Nepal has a total of 4,174,374 households, with an average household size of 5.49. The number of rural households is 3,509,867.
The statistics indicate that forest user groups alone comprise one fourth of country’s total households, and more than 40 percent of the rural households. As the government is still handing over forests to the people, community forestry can be expected to cover a wider area and many more households in the years ahead. The analysis of these data shows that there are more than seven million people under community forestry.
The hills surrounding Kathmandu Valley, which were once nearly bare, are covered by green forests. That is a scene witnessed across the country. Whether it is in Bajrajogini village, Lapsifedi or other parts of the country, community forestry has left a deep mark on the people and the local economy.
Despite political instability and frequent changes in central and local leadership, the rural population have shown that they have the capability to run institutions to protect their own resources. Although this is one of the largest locally managed forest schemes through the participation of people, it is yet to be properly recognized in the country.
“Sometimes I feel frustrated when well-educated colleagues and other friends express ignorance about projects where Nepalese people have shown extraordinary work. But our people are more aware about politics than other things,” says Joshi. “It seems our obsession with politics has obscured our development focus.”
Through the successful preservation of forests, Nepalese have shown how necessary community mobilization is for proper resource management. The concept of community forestry is based on the democratic principles propounded by American President Abraham Lincoln – “. by the people, for the people and of the people”.
Change in the Concept
Until a decade ago, people had to wait for special occasions to plant trees. Ministers, politicians and social workers used World Environment Day to extol the importance of trees and forest. After planting saplings on June 5, they simply forgot about them for the rest of the year.
The situation is different today at the local level, as people plant trees whenever they discover the need. Forest offices no longer distribute free plants. Most forest user groups supply various species of trees to the local community. Across Nepalese villages, community leaders encourage the people to protect the forest. Their experience is their inspiration.
For a country desperately seeking to lift the people out of the mire of absolute poverty, such programs have come as a boon. Moreover, people-centered forestry programs have succeeded in giving new hopes in rural areas without major investment. Nepal’s experience has shown that forest resources contribute to food security and create commercial and employment opportunities for the rural masses.
Community Forestry
After the massive deforestation the country saw during the run-up to the referendum in 1980 and amid growing cases of landslides, the government agreed to hand over forests back to the community, which were nationalized in 1956. In the early days, the handover was too slow. Following the restoration of multiparty democracy in 1990, community forestry has gained speed.
Community forestry today has become an integral part of rural Nepal. Compared to the hills, the expansion in the terai is slow. In the last two decades, only 226 forest user groups have been formed, which comprise 806,101 households.
“In the early phase, the process in the terai was too slow, but now the government is expanding community forestry coverage with support from donors,” says K.B. Shrestha, chief of the Community Forestry Division in the Department of Forest. “This policy shift will have a good impact in the long term.”
User groups, too, agree that there is a need to expand community forestry in terai region. “The government alone cannot manage commercially valuable forests in the terai, and they need our support,” says B.P. Shrestha, President of the Federation of Community Forestry User Groups.
Role of Community Forestry
Community forestry has played a vital role in transforming rural life. It has helped to establish institutions to select, groom, conserve and distribute forest resources equally among the local residents. “Once we hand over the forest to the community, the district forest office will provide only technical support. It is the duty of user groups to plant, conserve and manage the forest areas,” says Shrestha.
According to official guidelines, the local user groups formed through the participation of the local community call annual general meetings to decide which part of the forest needs to be harvested and which needs protection. The annual general meetings are responsible for managing the resources.
“As most of the user groups settle internal issues locally, forest offices hardly need to intervene. The consumer groups have disputes when the process of distribution of resources comes, but the guidelines are clear enough to sort out the problems,” says Joshi.
The local people are the owners of their natural resources and are free to decide in what way they need to distribute them. As women are responsible for almost all household chores, they have a greater say in planning. In many user groups, women often lead the meetings.
“One of the important parts of community forestry is the active participation of women in all kinds of decision making,” says Karki, the first woman to head a district forest office. “The women are active participants of user groups in my district.”
The participation of women is vital to the success of the program. “Although women are the primary users of forest products and are dependent on forests to meet their daily needs for leaves, litter, fuel-wood, fodder and grass, their involvement in decision making is still negligible,” says Usha Dahal, Community Forestry Officer with the Bagmati Integrated Watershed Management Program. “Our experience has shown that the participation of women vastly improves forest management.”
The people-based approach has shown that community forestry is the easiest sustainable way to manage the resources. Once the user group is formed, it will stand as a legal entity with the authority to operate various programs.
Planning and Programming
Developed under the Forest Act 1992 and Forest Regulations 1994, the user groups have to follow certain procedures. The legislation identifies five phases: identification, user group formation, operational plan preparation, review and revision. After the completion of these procedures, the district forest office provides formal registration.
From the planning to programming phases, almost all user groups follow scientific forest harvesting methods. The people cut the trees on the basis of rotation, as they divide the forest areas into various blocks. They decide the number of trees they need to cut each year. In most parts of the country, members of user groups use fodder and fuel wood from their own forests, and sell products to deficit areas.
Every resolution and decision needs to be approved by the user group. At the annual meeting, the group discusses the plans, lapses and forthcoming strategy for conservation. In this way, the community forest is gradually promoting the democratization process at the grass-roots level. As members of user groups choose their leader on the basis of his or her performance, the process also fosters leadership growth.
In many areas, the user groups are so powerful that they can change the fate of the politicians. “Political leaders visit our office to take a list of forest users group,” said an official at theDepartment of Forest. “This shows the political clout these groups have.”
Along with injecting a feeling of democratization, the local community is also showing the way to sustainable resource mobilization, natural resources management and fund utilization. “The country has developed nation-wide grass-roots institutions for forest management. At a time when we are stressing the need to eradicate rural poverty,† community forestry should be used to enhance the marketing and commercial activities,” says Rimal.
Donors’ Involvement
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Australian government have long been involved in community forestry. Under the EFEA\USA project, 119,357 hectares of forests in Banke, Bardiya, Dang, Pyuthan, Rukum and Salyan have been handed over to user groups. The Australian government is supporting community forestry in Kavrepalanchowk and Sindhupalchowk districts.
DANIDA has been supporting more than 80 percent of the hill areas in the country. DFID, SDC, GTZ, and SNV are also supporting parts of the community forestry program. Although the donors’ support has changed the state of forestry in the hills, the terai is yet to benefit.
USAID, GTZ and SNV have started some programs in the terai, but they are confined to certain areas. Commercially valuable species of trees are rapidly vanishing from the terai and the rate of deforestation is still alarming. The participation of the community is only way for the sustainable management of forests.
Backed by the western democratic world, the concept of the community forestry in Nepal shows that the successful mobilization of people at the grass-roots is the best way of implementing development activities.
Future Challenge
During its first two decades, the community forestry program has made steady progress, with the people having accepted the concept as their own. However, new challenges are coming up. The possibility of conflicts between user groups and local bodies needs to be taken into consideration. With the implementation of the Local Governance Act, elected village and district leaders have an evident desire to control the forest user groups, which are registered under the Forest Act. As user groups control more resources than the local bodies, local leaders seek a greater say in their activities. As forest user groups are fewer in number and more homogeneous than political institutions, they have a strong voice.
Currently, elected village and district bodies have been demanding control of the users groups in hushed tones. Once they raise their voice, conflicts may be inevitable. As most of elected leaders in villages and districts† are also members of users group, they may be able to avert serious conflicts.
As the people have their own institutions to share, distribute and sustain the local resources for the benefit of the community, the time has now come to use the resources to uplift the life of rural people. While most of the forests in the southern plains are on the verge of disappearance, those in the Chure hills are facing growing threats. If the recent trend of destruction goes unchecked, Nepal’s valuable tropical forests will vanish within a decade or two.
“We need to implement national forest management policies for the terai. If the national forest in terai is managed properly with the participation of the local community, it can generate millions of rupees in revenue for the government and fulfill the day-to-day necessities of the local community,” says Joshi.
People who were often victimized by soil erosion and landslides just two decades ago are now living in lush greenery. One of the achievements of the last two decades is that the government has realized the importance of public participation in forest management. The people, for their part, have realized the need to preserve forests for their own benefits.
“The forestry sector here has achieved tremendous successes because of community participation,” says Winston Ruthann Rudder, representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), of the United Nations. “These successes help in increasing agricultural productivity, enhancing soil management and inhibiting erosion. The country has earned world-wide recognition for successful community forestry. The FAO was also a pioneering partner in community forestry in Nepal.”
At a time when the world is celebrating the International Year of Mountains, the success story of the community forestry program needs to be spread. Soil erosion and landslides in the upper belt of the mountains mean greater vulnerability for the lowland farmers.
As Nepal’s Himalayan rivers have greater sedimentation than those in other parts of the world, the preservation and conservation of forest in the mountain region will ensure the well being of mountain and low-land communities. Community forestry in Nepal seems to be entering a new phase with the motto: increase the income of the local community through sustainable forest management.