Two decades of community forestry in Nepal: What have we learned?

1. INTRODUCTION
Two decades of community forestry in Nepal: What have we learned?
Development projects conceived now are rarely expected to have a life of more
than fi ve years, perhaps ten years at most. Looking back over more than twenty
years of project experience in community forestry - itself grounded on an integrated
development project of a similar time span - is thus a rare opportunity. Of
course trees and forests require a longer establishment period than many other
development interventions, and that is part of the rationale for a long time frame
– but not the only one. The project has also sought to promote social change in
favour of the poor and disadvantaged, and it was recognised both by those involved
in the project and by independent evaluators that this is not rapidly achieved 1 .
The beginnings of Nepal’s community forestry programme may be traced
back to the late 1970s, at a time when there were many concerns about the
environmental stability of degraded Himalayan slopes and the subsistence needs
of the growing population (Eckholm, 1976; World Bank, 1978). Huge progress has
been made over the intervening years, with community forestry being widely hailed
as one of Nepal’s success stories (Gilmour and Fisher, 1991; Gautam et al., 2002).
Some 25% of the total forest area of the country is now productively managed
by local communities. Yet there are critics. Indeed, the Nepal Swiss Community
Forestry Project (1990 – 2011) has reached an end at a time of renewed and growing
scepticism about community forestry in Nepal’s media and amongst some
key fi gures in the forestry sector – a criticism that in many ways is born of the
success of the programme overall. Regenerated, productive forests are a source
of wealth, and who benefi ts – or who should benefi t - from that wealth is a source of
contention. As was made clear during the international conference on
community forestry held in Pokhara in September 2009 2 , Nepal’s community
forestry programme has played a signifi cant role in empowering rural forest users
– in economic, social and political terms (Pokharel et al 2009). Yet the degree to
which this has happened varies across the country, and many challenges remain.
Indeed, throughout the world, community forestry is recognised as having far more
potential benefi ts for the poor and disadvantaged than have yet been achieved
(IUCN, 2011; International Forestry Review, 2009; RRI, 2008).
This document seeks to review and document the part that NSCFP has played
in the development of community forestry in Nepal. Although for simplicity, the
name NSCFP is used to refer to the project over its entire lifetime, it in fact began
in 1990 as the Dolakha Ramechhap Community Forestry Development Project. It
then became NSCFP in 1996, when the district of Okhaldunga was added. When
SDC took the decision to move into Khotang district in 2009, and to phase out all
its activities in Dolakha by the end of 2010, NSCFP followed the same pattern –
although it was already in its last phase.
1 See for example Gronow et al (2003), and Hobley et al (2007) for independent project reviews.
2 For the declaration made at the workshop, see http://www.forestrynepal.org/article/tags/4404
1