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

Two decades of community forestry in Nepal: What have we learned?
people in need during the time of confl ict, with impartial and friendly behaviour to all and a
clean image, proved them wrong. Later, following the peace agreement, we were told by
both of them that we were true development workers, nothing else!”
Similarly, Anita Shrestha, Forest Development Offi cer of Ramechhap district, recalls that
she herself was kidnapped for a day by the rebels. This was a very frightening experience
at the beginning. Nevertheless, it was also an opportunity for her to explain how the project
operated and for whom. She was able to communicate about the project’s goal, mission,
working strategies and the impartiality that she had to maintain. At the end, the rebels
were somehow convinced by her, and she was released the next day. She had the strong
impression that the main reason the rebels believed her was that she worked for the Swiss.
Some of their leaders were aware of NSCFP’s work, and thought well of it. In addition,
they had a positive image of Swiss support for vocational training, suspension bridges,
community forestry and the Lamo-sanghu to Jiri road.
The chairperson of FECOFUN Ramechhap, Narayan Karki remarked that many committee
members of CFUGs and FECOFUN leaders, including himself, were threatened, thrashed
and man-handled in an attempt to get them to hand over at least 50% of the groups’ funds
to insurgents. Yet they resisted. Since on many occasions the fund was granted to the
poorest households, the Maoists were under moral pressure not to demand too much.
They feared that if the poorest households, whom they claimed to be fi ghting to liberate,
saw that they were only after money, they would go against them.
“Open feedback about feelings about development space in confl ict to top SDC or project
leadership could have caused either an additional task to travel to engage with warring
parties for dialogue, which would often expose the one for forced donation or suspect,
or the closure of the project – which would have risked the livelihoods of many project
benefi ciaries and staff. Since despite SDC’s attempt to create development space and
protect staff, the working environment was fearful, some people would not express their
feelings in meetings but they used to express their feeling of insecurity and uncertainty in
person only”.
Anonymous, one participant of NSCFP’s Whole Staff Meeting
Looking back on the confl ict period, different people perceive the effects differently
– no doubt in part refl ecting their different political views. For some, the confl ict
merely served to constrain development activities.
“The confl ict in fact had negative impact on NSCFP’s work. In many groups much of the
fund of CFUG was captured by the rebellion group. Not much creative and innovative work
could be crafted during the confl ict; only a few programmes had to be continued which
were safe. Attention had to be placed more on the security and safety of staff rather than
the effectiveness of the programme. NSCFP was sandwiched between the warring parties.
I don’t think confl ict had any positive impact on development; if there had been no confl ict,
much could have been done to improve the livelihood of the people through forest
management.”
Bal Krishna Sharma, Journalist
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