Adaptive collaborative management of community forests in Asia ...

Chapter 3: Adaptiveness and Collaboration in Community Forestry in Nepal • 57
For example, trees provide food and bedding for the cattle that provide
draft power, milk, meat and manure for the fields, as well as providing
villagers with timber, firewood and agricultural implements. The forest is
also an important source of medicinal herbs and, in times of shortage, foods
for poor people. Besides the significant subsistence values of the forest,
some community members also rely on forests for the direct generation of
income, particularly those who are members of low (‘occupational’) castes,
such as the Chandara (pot maker) and Kami (blacksmith) castes (Paudel
et al. 2003). These people are the most vulnerable to changes in forest
condition and access. Until the mid-1990s, however, the use of nontimber
forest products and the commercial potential of community forests were
a secondary priority for both the government and for most CFUGs, while
forest protection—the impetus for the formation of the Community Forestry
Programme—was more central. Currently, with community forestry firmly
embedded as a tool for achieving both conservation and poverty reduction,
and with encouragement from bilateral agencies, NGOs and the private
sector, a gradual shift from subsistence to market-oriented management for
nontimber forest products is taking place (Pokharel et al. 2006; Subedi et
al. 2000).
In Nepal, ‘formal’ community forestry began in the late 1980s as a
government programme with considerable involvement from bilateral
actors. Over the past 25 years, however, the range of actors engaged in
this field has consistently increased, especially after the inauguration of
a multiparty political system in 1990 spawned civil society organisations.
Today, community forest user groups exist alongside leasehold forestry
groups, nongovernmental organisations, civil society networks, government
agencies, national and international research projects, and bilateral
projects at national, meso 8 , and local levels. These actors—some primarily
forestry focused, others differently or more broadly oriented—have diverse
interests, power, social positions, dispositions, worldviews, and motivations.
Some work directly in forest management; others produce policy ideas,
disseminate technical information, enforce regulations, provide financial
or other resources, and/or mediate conflicts. Together, they constitute a
dynamic social topography in the overlapping spheres of local, meso, and
national governance and forestry practices.
Its well-established and relatively mature national Community Forestry
Programme has made Nepal an international leader in this field. Community
forestry is perceived by the government and international actors alike as a
crucial mechanism for achieving development goals (Pokharel et al. 2002).