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

Two decades of community forestry in Nepal: What have we learned?
Resin tapping requires basic know-how and skill in order to maximise yield without
damaging the tree; this is also quite a hard, unpleasant job. The companies
therefore bring experienced resin tappers from Palpa who undertake the harvest;
the resin is then transported to Kathmandu for fi nal processing and packaging. The
NSCFP approach to this value chain was to suggest that CFUGs conduct resin
tapping themselves, and organise processing in a local enterprise. To this end,
training in sustainable tapping methods was provided to selected bipanna, and the
creation of a community-based resin company was encouraged. Established as a
partnership between local CFUGs and private investors, start-up funding for the
Tamakoshi Community Resin and Turpentine Private Ltd. was provided partially
by FECOFUN, and partially from private sources. It has, however, met with limited
success as breaking into the existing market has proved more diffi cult than
anticipated. A particular problem has been the diffi culty in fi nding willing labour
given that other, more attractive, options exist.
“Not much attention is paid to product marketing and quality assurance in the management
of community based enterprises. Moreover, the contribution of voluntary labour to promote
and run enterprises by community members is not sustainable, as they cannot afford
voluntary participation. Similarly, poor households have to be guaranteed employment
opportunities rather than just a share in the enterprise capital. Facilitation support to identify
the appropriate enterprise is not adequate. Most importantly, timber based enterprises
have not been suffi ciently promoted. Having the same leadership in FECOFUN as in the
enterprise makes the situation complicated, as they cannot offer quality time to both.”
Prakash Katuwal, Area Value Chain Offi cer, NSCFP
Timber is well known as the forest-based value chain in which there is greatest
potential to generate profi t. However, it is also the most un-transparent of the value
chains, entangled in a web of rules and regulations that are diffi cult to follow, and
high levels of informal payments (tips and bribes). For this reason relatively few
CFUGs in the project area were involved in timber harvesting until recently, and
the project did not make it a fi rst priority. CFUGs are required to obtain permission
from DFOs to sell timber, and this is only given if all local subsistence needs can
be proved to have been met. Separate permission to transport timber to the sales
point is also required. Furthermore, timber harvesting is only permitted in the drier
part of the year (November to June) – which gives a very short harvesting period
for forests at higher altitudes. Another rule is that forest-based enterprises with
the private sector investment cannot be established within or close to forests; a
distance of at least 1 km from the forest boundary must be left. Conditions such as
these tend to dissuade would-be investors. Other aspects that complicate timber
marketing are the royalty rate, which is fi xed as the same regardless of the type
and quality of timber, and the payment of taxes at many points along the value
chain (multiple taxation).
In the years 2008 - 2011, NSCFP supported a selected number of timber-rich
CFUGs in cluster areas in making commercial use of their forests. This included
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