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NACFP 4

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Summary:

The Australian Forestry Project has been the key actor and a pioneer in the continuous promotion of community forestry in Nepal for the last thirty years.
Livestock, especially, the Yak crossbred Production is an integral component of the ecosystem and a major socio- economic activity in the Upper Slope region within the altitude range of 2000 meter -4000 meter. The Livestock Production System heavily relies on pastureland and oak forest resources in the Upper Slope areas.
Due to the opening of new market opportunity for livestock products e.g. ghee and chhurpi at Khasa and Kathmandu, the population of Yak crossbreds has increased.
The pastureland and Oak Forest resources in these areas are over exploited. The oak trees in the accessible forest areas are showing signs of deterioration with poor regeneration capacity. In some areas, the Oak Forest is getting old with only few young trees. The pasturelands are heavily infested with undesirable and unpalatable weeds. The availability of medicinal and aromatic plants has also been reduced to bare minimum. .
For the last two years, the Nepal Australia Community Resource Management Project (NACRMP) is testing a management system model appropriate for the upper slope areas in the Central Region of Nepal. The basic approach has been to use the Participatory Action Research methodology as a framework to empower communities to organize themselves into User Groups and to encourage collaborative decision-making in the management of natural resources handed over to them.

The basic principles set by the NACRMP are:

•	Make the best use of indigenous knowledge, traditional system and local organisations and build on it for sustainable improvement in the management of resources and production system.
•	A participatory approach to involve all types of stakeholders.
•	A system approach that considers environmental, socio-economic and production demands as well.
•	Identification of appropriate interventions for the balanced utilization of natural resources and to respond to the major issues, especially, related to the livestock grazing and Oak Forest use.
•	An innovative approach to the management and protection of upper slope natural resources through the existing forest policy and legislation.

The future activities of the NACRMP in the upper slope areas will focus on:

•	Improved Oak Forest and pastureland management practices.
•	Formation of Forest User Groups (FUGs) responsible for the management of the community forests (especially Oak Forest) closest to their villages.
•	Formation of sub- groups / inter groups for the management of pasturelands to institutionalize a rational grazing and forest management system and to provide demand based services to user group members;
•	Development of grazing and NTFP user right systems for those communities forests.
•	Active participation of women, rural youth and disadvantaged groups in the management of natural resources and socio -economic development activities.