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

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This document is the product of a “capitalisation” process that began in early 2010,
and took shape during a number of subsequent sharing events. It was started
during a meeting of NSCFP staff members, who were asked to brainstorm on
project experiences, and to list and prioritise the main topics on which a project
“capitalisation” should focus. “Capitalisation” in this sense means a self-refl ection
and identifi cation of lessons learned. Nine topics came to the fore. A list of key
project stakeholders was then drawn up, and representatives of each stakeholder
group contacted to elicit their opinions about the project. They were particularly
asked to highlight what, in their view, had been the successes and the failures
related to the nine topics identifi ed – and to suggest any other topics that they
though important to cover. As there was no strong recommendation on further
topics, the original nine were retained. In August 2010 some of these stakeholders
– chiefl y ones with a district-based perspective - came together in Kathmandu for
a mini-workshop. This was followed by a larger one-day workshop in September,
at which the results of the stakeholder comments were presented and discussed
separately, by topic. Important points were recorded – both ones on which there
was general agreement, and ones on which opinions differed. The inputs of these
resource persons were further complemented by project-commissioned studies
and reports on specifi c issues, as deemed necessary.
The material thus collected was brought together in the current document, which
has been through a series of drafts to which contributions and further comments
have been made by project staff. It is thus an NSCFP production, containing both
the potential biases and the insights of those closely engaged in current project
implementation. Much effort has been placed, nevertheless, on incorporating a
wider stakeholder perspective, including a historical overview. For this we are very
grateful to all those persons listed in the annex for their contributions. The quotes
of some of these individuals, given in text boxes through the document, were
chosen to show a range of views. Not all these views are shared by project staff.
We take this opportunity to thank the Swiss Agency for Development and
Cooperation, SDC for their long support to NSCFP – and in particular,
Elisabeth von Capeller and Bimala Paudyal-Rai for their very close collaboration
over the last phase of NSCFP. We trust that this document represents an
accurate portrayal of NSCFP and different stakeholder perspectives. Nevertheless,
it is not necessarily an expression of the views of SDC. Thus any
errors that may be unwittingly contained are our responsibility.
Bharat Pokharel
Rudriksha Rai-Parajuli
on behalf of the NSCFP team
Jane Carter
Intercooperation, Bern
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