Nepal Australia Community Resource Management & Livelihoods ProjectNepal Australia Community Resource Management & Livelihoods Project
Nepal Australia Community Resource Management & Livelihoods Project
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Current Activities > Sustainable Natural Resource Management Systems strengthened>

Forest Management

The primary focus of this component is the development and adoption of sustainable community based forest management systems by FUGs. It takes a holistic livelihoods perspective and recognises that if systems are to be sustainable they require approaches that embrace technical, social, economic and institutional issues. This component will build on successful NACRMP's initiatives for the development of sustainable resource management systems, particularly in technical and social issues related to multiple-use forest management to ensure that community forest management plans reflect community needs.

Central questions to forest management are:
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How users could get maximum products from community forest maintaining the ecological stability?
> How forest management prescriptions could encompass gender and social equity?
> How to make equity in participation in forest management activities?
> Is the operational plan functional in daily practice and if yes, are pro-poor, marginalized and women benefiting?

 

Above mentioned questions are very important to address the second generation CF issues in Nepal. It is necessary to establish good governance at different levels based on the social justice, gender and equity principles to address these issues. At the same time, it is equally important to develop effective resource management systems to optimally utilise the resources for the benefit of pro-poor, women and marginalised groups including dalits. In other words, there is an issue of maximising productivity from forest by different interventions and also there is a concern on how these interventions will impact on pro-poor, marginalised and women. Therefore it is necessary to look at the community forest management from both perspectives.
 

Current Activities > Result III >

Sustainable Natural Resource Management System strengthened Service delivery mechanism for OP revision
 Pine spp. Plantation / Sal forest management
Forest nursery & plantation management
 NTFP management
 Community forage program
 Forage Resource Centers strengthening
 Village animal health workers' capability enhancement
 Soil conservation and land productivity improvement
 CDG network strengthening
 Watershed management and plan preparation
 Promote understanding of recommendations on upper-slopes oak and conifer forest management 


Pertaining issues and problems to be addressed during NACRMLP

The ageing of the pine plantations in Sindhu and Kabhre coupled with an urgent need for silvicultural treatments that will maintain the health of the forest brings into focus the need for a sound technical basis on which to base forest management decisions. In those FUGs where timber harvesting is becoming a major activity, there is an urgent need for training in safe and efficient tree felling and log extraction techniques. Similarly, where the collection of NTFPs is important, FUGs need support to develop appropriate techniques for the collection, processing and sale of the products. However, sound technical knowledge is only half the picture. In Nepal's community forests, effective silvicultural treatment is as much a social issue as a technical one. Conventional forest management tends to focus on trees and timber production. In community forests the emphasis should be on the community's use of the forest and the needs of households in the FUGs.
  
Objectives
 

Through flexible community-based approaches, assist resource users to develop and adopt sustainable forest management systems
 
Areas of Focus

The areas of interest in forest management could be looked at three groups: natural, plantation and mixed. One of the most important issues that need urgent attention is efficient pine forest management by FUGs for their livelihoods improvement within project areas. This should focus in both subsistence and active management for income generation.

In general,
• Finding options of natural resource management on a holistic way or landscape basis, considering the inter-linkages among farming system, forest and other natural resources
• Sustainable production of timber and non-timber forest products from the community forest
• Modality to establish an user-defined system that does not require external support to manage the forest in future
• Appropriate and sustainable NTFP management options

Guiding Principles
 

• A forest management system that provides direct benefit to pro-poor and marginalised
• Efficiency in terms of net social benefit rather than analysis based on cash return
• Focus on supplementing opportunity costs of poor and marginalised (eg. pine forest for sawn timber might have resulted in opportunity cost of losing firewood and fodder from forest by interested people)
• Locally adaptable and simple forest management planning system
 
Working Approaches
 

Intensive research and analysis (Action learning)
• Current situation analysis
• The identification of important issues
• Finding the approaches to respond those issues
• Trailing new methods
• Innovative management initiatives plots
• NTFP research

Institutionalising new innovation within project
• Involving them in the process
• Utilising other stakeholders network
• Transferring technical knowledge at different levels
• Developing tools for communicating technical information
 


Activities

 • Review NACRMP's Project Completion Report and other project and non-project documents and consult with stakeholders to ensure that past lessons will be used
• Build on existing data to prioritise forest management needs and to develop implementation strategies for assisting FUGs
• Contribute to defining and supporting the training of FUG members, particularly in technical issues related to multiple-use forest management, including timber harvesting
• Work with FUGs and DFOs to refine existing forest management guidelines for community use
• Support to FUGs and DFOs to encourage fuller utilisation of the forests through more active forest management

 

 

 
     
   
 

 
 

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