Natural versus Plantation Forest under Community Management in Nepal's Far-Western Tarai

Forest will continue to degrade if indigenous people and local community's rights to sustainable forest management are not ensured. Community forest management is a viable regime to address this issue. However, there are limited studies on differences among Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs) in terms of population, forest condition and resource availability. The CFUGs with natural or plantation forest in Kailali and Kanchanpur of Nepal's far-western Tarai have varied experiences in conservation and use of forest products. They are diverse in terms of population composition and resource endowment. The CFUGs with natural forest are more resourceful than those with plantation forest. The CFUGs with plantation forest have high population pressure per household and unit area of CF. Men and hill migrants have dominated the decision making positions and processes more in the CFUGs with natural forest. The CFUGs with natural forest are relatively in the better-off position in terms of forest area available per household, forest product available from the mature forest and income generation from distribution of forest products outside and with in the CFUGs. The CFUGs with plantation forest less availability of forest products from young forest resulting in high population pressure on government managed forest and other sources to meet their demands. Thus, the government should devise separate policies to evaluate and support the 'natural' and 'plantation' forests. Analysis of demand and supply of forest products in CFUGs and their networking will help meet the demand of various segments of the CFUG and also neighbouring communities. The forest authorities and federations of CFUGs have important role to analyse demand and supply, and make provisions for distribution of forest products within and outside CFUGs. External support to provide biogas and improved cooking stoves would be imperative to reduce forest product consumption. Promotion of non-timber forest products in both natural and plantation forests would help conserve forest, generate income and develop ownership among the users for sustainable forest management. Promotion of agroforestry and private forestry would help increase the supply of forest products and adopt livestock stall feeding practice. The provision of leasehold and private property rights and their transferability within and outside CF management regimes will help benefit the poor for sustainable resource management.

Under progress

Capacity building with the financial support

Capacity building coupled with the financial support helps develop entrepreneurship. Chandra Bahadur Thapa, a young resident of Amarbasti, Basisebichawa-9, Kanchanpur is busy these days in his carpentry workshop and providing service to the communities. This has been possible with the entrepreneurship training he attended and the loan he received from Mohana Laljhadi Area Saving and Credit Cooperative Ltd., Baisebichawa. He earns two to three hundreds per day for his support to the households in the community. Income from his workshop is extra. He has hired two trainees to support him in his workshop and pays one hundred rupees per day to each of them.

In 2007, Western Terai Landscape Complex Project (WTLCP) had organised the entrepreneurship development training for the poor community members to develop their knowledge and skill on entrepreneurship. The training was conducted with the expectation that entrepreneurship will help increase income and reduce dependency of communities on forest resources contributing to biodiversity conservation and sustainable livelihoods. Mohana Laljhadi Area Coordination Committee had selected the participants of the training based on the outcomes of participatory well-being ranking.

After receiving training, Chandra received a loan of seven thousand rupees from Mohana Laljhadi Area Cooperative at the interest rate of eight percent per year so long as the loan has to be paid back within two years. Chandra purchased carpentry tools such as driller and saw with that sum of money, which had been helpful to scale up his profession. He has already payed back the money lent from the cooperative within the stipulated time. "I am encouraged to well equip my workshop. For that purpose, I have requested Mohana Laljhadi Area Cooperative for second loan", says Chandra. He is a member of Amar Gokul proposed Community Forest User Group and actively participates in forest conservation as well.

On the whole, building capacity is necessary but not sufficient to develop entrepreneurship. Community people adopt a profession if it is suitable to one's interest and skill and rewarding economically, socially and environmentally. The entrepreneurship that is based on mobilising local resource persons and materials will be more sustainable.

Biogas-An Effective Means of Reducing Fuelwood

"Biogas has reduced the consumption of fuelwood as a cooking fuel to less than half ", says Alkaiya Chaudhari, a user of Chetana Women Community Forest User Group (CFUG) in Geta-3, Kailali. Alkaiya adds, "Previously we used to consume six to seven bhari of fuelwood per month (1 bhari is around 30 kg). Now, we need only three bhari and biogas is sufficient for cooking food for our family of 11, including four children." She owns two cattles, one buffalo and a biogas attached toilet for the supply of gas.

In February 2009, Western Terai Landscape Complex Project (WTLCP) provided a sum of five thousand rupees each to 13 households in Geta VDC to attach their toilets to biogas plant. Alkaiya is one them. The CFUG members identified those 13 households based on their demand, need and capability. To date, WTCLP has supported 217 households for biogas attached toilets along Mohana corridor in Dhangadhi municipality, Geta and Malakheti VDCs. WTLCP chanelised all supports to the communities through Mohana Kailali Community Forest Coordination Committee, Dhangadhi.

Biogas improves the environment in the homesteads. It reduces the flow of smoke in the kitchen and homestead improving the health of family member, particular the women who cook food. It lessens work burden to women to clear black dust in the cooking put. "Biogas reduces women's workload in other forms as well because women most often collect fuelwood from the forest", says Laxmi Joshi, the former Treasurer of Chetana Women CFUG. Women in that community spend two to three hours a day to collect fuelwood from Laljhadi forest in Kanchanpur. Women can take care of themselves and spare their saved time from reduced collection of fuelwood with their family members in their kitchen yards and homesteads.

On the whole, biogas is environmentally friendly, economically profitable and socially acceptable. It is effective to reduce the consumption of fuelwood. Attaching toilet to the biogas plan augments the supply of gas. Biogas has been an effective means to reduce women's drudgery. The increasing awareness of people and desire to install biogas attached toilet reveals that they are sensitive towards biodiversity conservation and improving livelihoods. The knowledge on appropriately preparing slurry and using the biogas will be an advantage to maximise the benefit from biogas.

Analysing Equity in Common Property Resource Management

Common Property Resource (CPR) management plays an important role in efficient use, equitable allocation and sustainable conservation, which does not lead to a 'tragedy of commons'. However, the studies on CPR management have questioned the equity outcomes. This paper reviews the analytical frameworks, equity in terms of both procedural and distributional aspects, and attributes conditioning CPR management. The analytical frameworks conceptualise CPR management as the pattern of interaction which are conditioned by the technical and physical attributes of the resource, the decision making arrangements between the resource users. This interaction produces a certain outcome in terms of costs and benefits for the resource users, differences in their interests and in terms of efficiency and equity of resource use. The review reveals that resources are heterogeneous in terms of species diversity, use and exchange values guided by interests from the local to central levels. The communities are heterogeneous in terms of class, caste/ethnicity, gender, their power relation, norms, values, access to resource. The paper concludes that CPR management should be contextualized to heterogeneous resource and socio-political setting of the community for crafting institution that facilitate equitable decision making processes and distribution of benefits to all segments of the community. Understanding the concepts and issues on CPR management has implications to policies, strategies and programmes to ensure sustainable CPR management.

The article is on progress

Participatory Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation: An Approach to Sustainable Development

Participation of different groups excluded from the development process has been an important issue at times when Nepal is engaged in drafting a new constitution and discussing on the federal structure. With the declaration of a Federal Democratic Republic Nepal. indigenous people and local communities have demanded to establish their rights to and benefits from managing water, land and forest resources. They have long been managing the natural resource and sustainably using for their livelihoods. Besides, they have also contributed to mitigating global carbon emission. They can not claim their rights without sustainable resource management policies, programmes and development process. The development process will be sustainable if the excluded groups actively participate in planning, monitoring and evaluation (PME) processes. Thus, the policies, strategic and operational plans, and programmes need to prioritise participatory planning, monitoring and evaluation (PPME) as an approach to sustainable development.

This article is under progress.

Community Forest Management Practices in Far-Western Lowlands of Nepal

Shrestha, B. (2008). Community Forest Management Practices in Far-Western Lowlands of Nepal. Banko Janakari 18(2):25-34. Kathmandu, Nepal: Department of Forest Survey and Research.

Wider discussions are held as to the contribution of community forestry program in Nepal to improve the forest condition and meeting the forest product requirements. This paper presents findings from a study of six Community Forest User Groups in far-western lowlands of Kailali and Kanchanpur in Nepal. The groups with natural and plantation forests have varied experiences in forest conservation and distribution of products. Some groups are resourceful in terms of availability of forest products from the natural forests. Others with plantation forests are product scarce from their own and depend on government managed forest and other sources to meet their demands. The role of concerned government authorities and federation of groups would be instrumental to analyse demand and supply, and make provisions for distribution of forest products within and outside groups and district.

Differentiating Active and Passive User Groups for Watershed Management in the Western Hills of Nepal

Shrestha, B. (2005). Differentiating active and passive user groups for watershed management in the western hills of Nepal. In Integrated Watershed Management: Studies and Experiences from Asia, ed. by M. Zoebisch, K.M. Cho, S. Hein and R. Mowla: 95-111. Thailand: Asian Institute of Technology.

The status of a user group (active vs. passive) largely depends on how far its members benefit personally and directly from collective action. Unless and until users are convinced of the apparent benefits, they are not going to participate actively in collective action. This issue is very relevant to rural subsistence economies, in which people are compelled to expand farmlands and destroy forest lands to secure food for consumption, fuelwood for domestic energy supply, fodder collection, and for livestock grazing. The situation is further aggravated by scarce off-farm employment opportunities causing seasonal and permanent migration. The types and levels of benefits from collective action depend on a multitude of factors and their inter-relationships. In the case of community plantation, the users accrue forest resources as the direct benefit, besides the communal benefit of land stabilization. Collective action is largely determined by the level of dependence of users on the available resource and accessibility to other sources of forest products to meet their household requirements. The level of dependency also depends on the biophysical suitability of the area in which community plantation is undertaken. Responsible users will consequently conduct regular operation and maintenance of the resources, which will enhance benefits. This situation was applicable to active user groups. For gully and landslide control, users are concerned with the protection of cultivated land from landslides, so they can benefit from reclamation of cultivated land. This will ultimately raise their level of food production and food security in a subsistence rural economy. Thus project intervention for controlling landslides and formation of gullies close to private lands has a significant impact on the users. With the facilitation of training and visits, users can continue their collective efforts when project support finishes.