Adaptive collaborative management of community forests in Asia ...

80 • Cynthia McDougall, Hemant Ojha, Raj Kumar Pandey, Mani Ram Banjade and Bishnu Hari Pandit
or entitlements (i.e., livelihood and income benefits) and an increased or
renewed interest in forest system health (i.e., ecosystem benefits 21 )—plus a
third trend, an increase in attention to equity, that cross-cuts and mediates
between them.
In all sites, we saw a pattern of increased plans for generating forest-based
income. Three of the four CFUGs had initiated plans for forest product
income, such as bamboo handicraft sales, by the end of the PAR phase;
the fourth CFUG (Manakamana) was in the planning stage. Notably, these
activities were more targeted to the poor and marginalised users than they
had been in the past. For example, in Deurali-Bagedanda CFUG, a bamboo
craft training was organised based on the interest expressed by ‘poor’ users
in making bamboo handicrafts for seasonal income, and the CFUG decided
to sell bamboo to these users at a very low price. Likewise, a feasibility study
for a sawmill was organised by and for the socioeconomically marginalised
Biswakorma tole, and the CFUG decided that if the study was positive, saw
logs from the community forest would be provided at a cheaper rate to
this subgroup. This inclination for CFUG members to increase propoor
initiatives as a part of their forest-based income efforts acts as a potential
balancing force to the increased interest in forest protection, described
below.
Some small increases in financial capital—such as CFUG funds or returns
from forest products—were observed in all four sites during the PAR. For
example, Bamdibhir CFUG started to earn some returns from its bamboo
initiative, and Manakamana CFUG raised its user fees and sold more
timber within the group. More important than any immediate change in
financial assets is that the CFUGs appeared to have laid the groundwork
for future increases, including by marginal users. Specifically, besides
increasing the number of forest-related income generation activities,
all the CFUGs had increased financial accountability and transparency.
They have also made efforts to control misappropriations of funds by the
committee, created credit programs or earmarked portions of their income
for poor households and enhanced linkages to external stakeholders who
are potential contributors.
The second trend we highlight here was that the learning-based selfmonitoring
and perhaps also the increased exposure to district forest office
staff tended to increase interest in the long-term sustainability of the forest.
For example, seedling planting rates, nursery seedling survival rates, and