In community forest management, the rights
to the use and management of forest areas have been transferred
by
the government to local communities. This has led to the
emergence of the concept of triangular interface among
community, resource and facilitators (NORMS 2002). In practice,
the users seem to be protection oriented and on
the other hand the service providers have not been able
to provide required services to the Forest User Groups
(FUGs) as per their needs and management objectives as they
lack practical experiences in community forest
management.
The Farmers™ Forest Management School (FFMS) is therefore
being developed to respond to farmers™ identified
needs and interest to learn more about forest management
practices in groups. The process has been initiated to
develop a suitable approach to build forest users™
capacity in forest management. The FFMS process promotes
the triangular pattern of interactions, which in fact influence
each other's action, develop and implement resource use
and management plans and strategies for effective forest
management.
This paper examines how FFMS is helpful to empower FUGs
in managing their community forests in technical
aspects and also will examine constraints and opportunities
in the implementation of the approach in sustainable
forest management. This paper will also try to identify
elements and current practices of community forestry,
and the potential added value of FFMS to community forestry.
It will also share the experiences and lessons
learnt from Nepal on FFMS and the knowledge generated from
it for the scaling up of the program widely.
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