Project Name: Fostering Health and Livelihoods of Conflict Affected People in Nepal
Project Period: March 2008-February 2010
Financial Support: European Commission

This project was designed to assist conflict affected vulnerable communities to acquire better health and livelihoods opportunities. The specific objective of this project is increased access to essential health care services and livelihoods opportunities to most disadvantaged and conflict affected communities in the selected districts of Nepal. The primary beneficiaries of the proposed action are conflict victims, Dalits, Janajatis, Madhesis, people with disabilities, rural poor, women, youth, children, and other marginalised and excluded groups. The final beneficiaries are the larger communities of 11 project districts covering about 18 percent of Nepal’s population. The 11 action districts of this project include Morang, Dhankuta, Panchthar and Khotang from Eastern Region; Kavre and Chitwan from Central Region; Nawalparasi, Arghakhanchi and Kapilvastu from Western Region; Kalikot from Mid-West Region; and Achham from Far-Western Region. The project is successful in developing self-esteem and trust among excluded and vulnerable communities, NGOs and Community Based Organisations (CBOs); and to open up new opportunities towards promoting peace, social integration, capacity building, rehabilitation, reconstruction, reintegration, inclusion, and revitalisation of the health services and livelihoods improvement.
This project is implemented by a consortium of one INGO, two national NGOs and 11 district based NGOs. The project was started with baseline survey using Rapid Need Assessment (RNA) tool.  Altogether 168 different events related to livelihood, capacity building and health support were carried out within the particular district during the project period, March 2008-December 2009.

This action research project was executed to provide strategic inputs to the forest policy process towards strengthening community rights in Nepal. The political transition, especially the discourses of state restructuring has encouraged forest-sector stakeholders towards a fundamental transformation of forest policies and institutions. In this context the project aimed at generating a brief yet holistic review of Nepal’s forestry sector, analyse the drivers of change and identify the points of departure for a more productive, sustainable and equitable forest governance in Nepal.
The analysis identifies rural livelihoods and environmental sustainability as the twin goals of forest management and foresees a strong role of local communities and local governments in forest governance and management. Therefore it suggests for reducing the sole reliance on state forest bureaucracy. It also identifies the need for an independent and autonomous institution for providing various needed technical and institutional support to the forest user groups. A landscape level comprehensive management with clear and equitable tenure arrangement is crucial for new forest policy strategy in order to meet the dual goals. The study has developed a report providing a strategic analysis with recommendations for transforming the forest sector.

This project assesses the status of community rights across the three ecological zones in Nepal and provides a comprehensive picture of rights situation in different geographical landscapes particularly focusing on the situation in high altitude and Terai (lowlands). Forest tenure reform in Nepal for the last three decades has focused on participatory and community based management. Consequently, almost one third of the total forests are under different forms of community based management regimes where locals are involved in the sustainable management and use of forest resources. However, the forest area handed-over to local institutions vary across the ecological zones. While large part of mid-hill forests is under community forestry, much of forests in the high altitude and Terai are still largely under government control.

The study reveals that community rights are more secure in the mid hills, primarily due to community forestry programme. The high altitude region suffers from remoteness, slow regeneration of forests, lack of required services and institutional conflicts between sedentary community groups and transhumant pastoralists. Similarly, communities’ access in Terai forests is constrained as most of the forest there is either under strict protection or state management. Besides, elite capture has been the key local phenomena in Terai and marginalisation of weaker social groups in decision making and benefit sharing. The study analyses four key determining factors that shapes the tenure arrangements: resource abundance and accessibility, tenure regime, regulatory framework and institutions that mediate access to forests and benefits from forest management. The underlying factors for the variations in community rights across ecological zones are found to be exclusionary historical political processes, economic incentives, forest distribution and settlement patterns and techno-bureaucratic control.

Project Period: August-December, 2009
Financial Support: Rights and Resources Initiatives

The necessity of a productive and equitable management of community resources for generating higher level of pro-poor outcomes, especially the maximisation of economic opportunities at local level, is well recognised. Accordingly, community forestry has shifted its focus from subsistence use to commercial appropriation to generate increased financial benefits. As a result, CFUGs have increased their financial transactions tremendously over the last ten years. Paradoxically, such increased financial transaction at local level has not generated a proportional pro-poor outcome. At the same time, there is a serious lack of comprehensive analysis of the phenomena. Analysis of current fund management is thus expected to help explore innovative and productive mechanism for CFUG fund mobilisation and help deal with issues of increased inequality and poverty at local level. The objectives of the study are:

1. Identify the sources of income of CFUGs,
2. Distribution patterns of expenditure, and
3. Dynamics of decisions making, particularly on formulating investment policies.

In this research, the distribution of expenditure in CFUGs has been analysed focusing on actual financial investment patterns, decision-making procedures, and disbursement mechanisms in six different aspects:  (i) grants and other financial supports to the identified poor households, (ii) investment on commercialisation and pro-poor enterprises, (iii) expenses in forest development activities, iv) costs incurred by CFUGs in infrastructure and community development, (v) institutional and managerial expenditures, and (vi) financial costs involved in democratic practices and decision making arrangement at district and local levels.

With an objective to promote LFP innovations, lessons and insights in the wider policy and practice domains Livelihood and Forestry Program (LFP) and ForestAction had signed a partnership agreement in May 2008. The idea was to capitalise the professional compatibilities and publication experience/windows of ForestAction to capture and disseminate LFP innovations. Within a period of one year, several products were developed jointly by consultants from ForestAction and staff within LFP. The outcomes delivered by the project include:

• • One community forestry good practice paper entitled Community Forestry in Nepal: Promoting Livelihoods, Community Development and the Environment.
  • Published a Journal of Forest and Livelihood: Special Issue on Lessons from Livelihood and Forestry Programme.
  • Published a Hamro Ban Sampada (Nepali journal) focusing on Forestry Program for Livelihood.
  • Published an article entitled Exploring Local Knowledge of Climate Change: Some Reflections in Journal of Forest and Livelihood: Special Issue on Climate Change, Forestry and Local Livelihoods.
  • Four policy briefs (in English) on various topics related NRM and livelihoods.
  • Published two policy briefs in Nepali entitled Challenges of Climate Change and Way Forward, and  Transformation of Terai Forestry in Nepal: A Proposal for National Consensus.
  • Development of a book proposal on community forestry.
  • Organised writing workshop for LFP staff and partners in Kathmandu and Pokhara.

Project Name: Support Dialogue for Strategic Policy Input in Securing Community Rights in Nepal
Project Period: September 2008-August 2009
Financial Support: Rights and Resource Initiatives

This project was implemented in collaboration with FECOFUN. In the context of state restructuring and new constitution building, ForestAction and FECOFUN had agreed to facilitate a national dialogue on the role of local communities in the management of natural resources. ForestAction carried out a strategic analysis of the community rights over natural resources and FECOFUN leads the interaction and lobbying in favor of community right. The major objectives of the project were:

1. To prepare a synthesis overview on the state of art on community rights on forests,
2. To compare various models of resource management and highlight the pros and cons of those models in relation to people’s livelihoods,
3. Draw lessons from three decades of community forestry that could be scaled out and translated to other sectors – health, irrigation and primary education,
4. Expand and strengthen civil society networks to reflect and consolidate voices in favor of community rights, and
5. Promote constructive engagement with policy communities in producing an analytical policy document on community rights over natural resource management.

The project has brought a strategic policy document explaining the situation of security of community rights on forest, land and water resource management which also contains policy recommendations to ensure security of rights, sustainability and livelihoods of local communities. A series of national and regional level workshops were jointly organised with FECOFUN. This initiative has brought community rights and NRM in the forefront of constitutional debate.

Funded by IDRC, Delhi, this project was implemented by FA in collaboration with HIMAWANTI Nepal. This project aimed to examine women’s participation in public decision-making within the context of state decentralization process in Nepal. It seeks to understand women’s role as social actors, as well as the gendered social relations that shape women’s agency in the governance of public resources and services. A total of five clusters representing all ecological and development regions have been identified for the field study: 1) Morang, 2) Kavrepalnachok and Lalitpur, 3) Dang, 4) Dadeldhura, and 5) Mustang.

The focus of the research was on the gendered social relations that shape women’s agency in the governance of public resources and services. This study analyzes the depth and breadth of participation through which women exercise their agency in various policy and socio-cultural contexts of decentralization. The study has also identified some processes and strategies that enhance positive impact of decentralization on women in Nepal.

This research examines the effectiveness of women’s participation in the context of state decentralisation process in Nepal. In particular, the study examines four different spheres of decentralisation, viz., community forestry (involving local groups in the management of national forests); irrigation management (involving farmer groups in the governance of irrigation systems); community school (involving local communities in the governance of school level education); and local governance (with locals at village level and elected political bodies at village and district levels).

Wetland conservation programme was implemented in the Chitwan to conserve the wetlands in the area. The bridging project implemented from April 2007 to January 2008 was funded by the IUCN Netherland under the Ecosystem Grants Programme. The objectives of this project were to strengthen the capacity of the local stakeholders, institutionalise wetland conservation strategies among local institutions and enhance the livelihoods of the local and indigenous communities. While two wetland areas, namely Shanischare and Lamichaur, are specifically targeted in this project, a wide range of stakeholders have been invited to reflect upon and support wetland management issues in Chitwan Valley. The major stakeholders were CFUG, Buffer Zone User Committees, Village Development Committees, the Chitwan National Park, local NGOs and People’s Organisations. Poor households have been identified and have been given priority in income generation activities.

The major activities under the project included a participatory social analysis and resource appraisal, ecological assessment of wetland ecosystem, trainings and exposure visits for stakeholders, and planning and implementation of community based enterprises for income generation. The project also facilitated a dialogue on the issues of wetland management through creating platforms and organising periodic events, carried out social and ecological assessments, provided trainings on wetland conservation and organised workshops on wetland resource management.

Project Name: Fostering Health and Livelihoods of Conflict Affected People in Nepal
Project Period: March 2008-February 2010
Financial Support: European Commission

This project was designed to assist conflict affected vulnerable communities to acquire better health and livelihoods opportunities. The specific objective of this project is increased access to essential health care services and livelihoods opportunities to most disadvantaged and conflict affected communities in the selected districts of Nepal. The primary beneficiaries of the proposed action are conflict victims, Dalits, Janajatis, Madhesis, people with disabilities, rural poor, women, youth, children, and other marginalised and excluded groups. The final beneficiaries are the larger communities of 11 project districts covering about 18 percent of Nepal’s population. The 11 action districts of this project include Morang, Dhankuta, Panchthar and Khotang from Eastern Region; Kavre and Chitwan from Central Region; Nawalparasi, Arghakhanchi and Kapilvastu from Western Region; Kalikot from Mid-West Region; and Achham from Far-Western Region. The project is successful in developing self-esteem and trust among excluded and vulnerable communities, NGOs and Community Based Organisations (CBOs); and to open up new opportunities towards promoting peace, social integration, capacity building, rehabilitation, reconstruction, reintegration, inclusion, and revitalisation of the health services and livelihoods improvement.
This project is implemented by a consortium of one INGO, two national NGOs and 11 district based NGOs. The project was started with baseline survey using Rapid Need Assessment (RNA) tool.  Altogether 168 different events related to livelihood, capacity building and health support were carried out within the particular district during the project period, March 2008-December 2009.

This action research project was executed to provide strategic inputs to the forest policy process towards strengthening community rights in Nepal. The political transition, especially the discourses of state restructuring has encouraged forest-sector stakeholders towards a fundamental transformation of forest policies and institutions. In this context the project aimed at generating a brief yet holistic review of Nepal’s forestry sector, analyse the drivers of change and identify the points of departure for a more productive, sustainable and equitable forest governance in Nepal.
The analysis identifies rural livelihoods and environmental sustainability as the twin goals of forest management and foresees a strong role of local communities and local governments in forest governance and management. Therefore it suggests for reducing the sole reliance on state forest bureaucracy. It also identifies the need for an independent and autonomous institution for providing various needed technical and institutional support to the forest user groups. A landscape level comprehensive management with clear and equitable tenure arrangement is crucial for new forest policy strategy in order to meet the dual goals. The study has developed a report providing a strategic analysis with recommendations for transforming the forest sector.

This project assesses the status of community rights across the three ecological zones in Nepal and provides a comprehensive picture of rights situation in different geographical landscapes particularly focusing on the situation in high altitude and Terai (lowlands). Forest tenure reform in Nepal for the last three decades has focused on participatory and community based management. Consequently, almost one third of the total forests are under different forms of community based management regimes where locals are involved in the sustainable management and use of forest resources. However, the forest area handed-over to local institutions vary across the ecological zones. While large part of mid-hill forests is under community forestry, much of forests in the high altitude and Terai are still largely under government control.

The study reveals that community rights are more secure in the mid hills, primarily due to community forestry programme. The high altitude region suffers from remoteness, slow regeneration of forests, lack of required services and institutional conflicts between sedentary community groups and transhumant pastoralists. Similarly, communities’ access in Terai forests is constrained as most of the forest there is either under strict protection or state management. Besides, elite capture has been the key local phenomena in Terai and marginalisation of weaker social groups in decision making and benefit sharing. The study analyses four key determining factors that shapes the tenure arrangements: resource abundance and accessibility, tenure regime, regulatory framework and institutions that mediate access to forests and benefits from forest management. The underlying factors for the variations in community rights across ecological zones are found to be exclusionary historical political processes, economic incentives, forest distribution and settlement patterns and techno-bureaucratic control.

Project Period: August-December, 2009
Financial Support: Rights and Resources Initiatives

The necessity of a productive and equitable management of community resources for generating higher level of pro-poor outcomes, especially the maximisation of economic opportunities at local level, is well recognised. Accordingly, community forestry has shifted its focus from subsistence use to commercial appropriation to generate increased financial benefits. As a result, CFUGs have increased their financial transactions tremendously over the last ten years. Paradoxically, such increased financial transaction at local level has not generated a proportional pro-poor outcome. At the same time, there is a serious lack of comprehensive analysis of the phenomena. Analysis of current fund management is thus expected to help explore innovative and productive mechanism for CFUG fund mobilisation and help deal with issues of increased inequality and poverty at local level. The objectives of the study are:

1. Identify the sources of income of CFUGs,
2. Distribution patterns of expenditure, and
3. Dynamics of decisions making, particularly on formulating investment policies.

In this research, the distribution of expenditure in CFUGs has been analysed focusing on actual financial investment patterns, decision-making procedures, and disbursement mechanisms in six different aspects:  (i) grants and other financial supports to the identified poor households, (ii) investment on commercialisation and pro-poor enterprises, (iii) expenses in forest development activities, iv) costs incurred by CFUGs in infrastructure and community development, (v) institutional and managerial expenditures, and (vi) financial costs involved in democratic practices and decision making arrangement at district and local levels.

With an objective to promote LFP innovations, lessons and insights in the wider policy and practice domains Livelihood and Forestry Program (LFP) and ForestAction had signed a partnership agreement in May 2008. The idea was to capitalise the professional compatibilities and publication experience/windows of ForestAction to capture and disseminate LFP innovations. Within a period of one year, several products were developed jointly by consultants from ForestAction and staff within LFP. The outcomes delivered by the project include:

• • One community forestry good practice paper entitled Community Forestry in Nepal: Promoting Livelihoods, Community Development and the Environment.
  • Published a Journal of Forest and Livelihood: Special Issue on Lessons from Livelihood and Forestry Programme.
  • Published a Hamro Ban Sampada (Nepali journal) focusing on Forestry Program for Livelihood.
  • Published an article entitled Exploring Local Knowledge of Climate Change: Some Reflections in Journal of Forest and Livelihood: Special Issue on Climate Change, Forestry and Local Livelihoods.
  • Four policy briefs (in English) on various topics related NRM and livelihoods.
  • Published two policy briefs in Nepali entitled Challenges of Climate Change and Way Forward, and  Transformation of Terai Forestry in Nepal: A Proposal for National Consensus.
  • Development of a book proposal on community forestry.
  • Organised writing workshop for LFP staff and partners in Kathmandu and Pokhara.

Project Name: Support Dialogue for Strategic Policy Input in Securing Community Rights in Nepal
Project Period: September 2008-August 2009
Financial Support: Rights and Resource Initiatives

This project was implemented in collaboration with FECOFUN. In the context of state restructuring and new constitution building, ForestAction and FECOFUN had agreed to facilitate a national dialogue on the role of local communities in the management of natural resources. ForestAction carried out a strategic analysis of the community rights over natural resources and FECOFUN leads the interaction and lobbying in favor of community right. The major objectives of the project were:

1. To prepare a synthesis overview on the state of art on community rights on forests,
2. To compare various models of resource management and highlight the pros and cons of those models in relation to people’s livelihoods,
3. Draw lessons from three decades of community forestry that could be scaled out and translated to other sectors – health, irrigation and primary education,
4. Expand and strengthen civil society networks to reflect and consolidate voices in favor of community rights, and
5. Promote constructive engagement with policy communities in producing an analytical policy document on community rights over natural resource management.

The project has brought a strategic policy document explaining the situation of security of community rights on forest, land and water resource management which also contains policy recommendations to ensure security of rights, sustainability and livelihoods of local communities. A series of national and regional level workshops were jointly organised with FECOFUN. This initiative has brought community rights and NRM in the forefront of constitutional debate.

Funded by IDRC, Delhi, this project was implemented by FA in collaboration with HIMAWANTI Nepal. This project aimed to examine women’s participation in public decision-making within the context of state decentralization process in Nepal. It seeks to understand women’s role as social actors, as well as the gendered social relations that shape women’s agency in the governance of public resources and services. A total of five clusters representing all ecological and development regions have been identified for the field study: 1) Morang, 2) Kavrepalnachok and Lalitpur, 3) Dang, 4) Dadeldhura, and 5) Mustang.

The focus of the research was on the gendered social relations that shape women’s agency in the governance of public resources and services. This study analyzes the depth and breadth of participation through which women exercise their agency in various policy and socio-cultural contexts of decentralization. The study has also identified some processes and strategies that enhance positive impact of decentralization on women in Nepal.

This research examines the effectiveness of women’s participation in the context of state decentralisation process in Nepal. In particular, the study examines four different spheres of decentralisation, viz., community forestry (involving local groups in the management of national forests); irrigation management (involving farmer groups in the governance of irrigation systems); community school (involving local communities in the governance of school level education); and local governance (with locals at village level and elected political bodies at village and district levels).

Wetland conservation programme was implemented in the Chitwan to conserve the wetlands in the area. The bridging project implemented from April 2007 to January 2008 was funded by the IUCN Netherland under the Ecosystem Grants Programme. The objectives of this project were to strengthen the capacity of the local stakeholders, institutionalise wetland conservation strategies among local institutions and enhance the livelihoods of the local and indigenous communities. While two wetland areas, namely Shanischare and Lamichaur, are specifically targeted in this project, a wide range of stakeholders have been invited to reflect upon and support wetland management issues in Chitwan Valley. The major stakeholders were CFUG, Buffer Zone User Committees, Village Development Committees, the Chitwan National Park, local NGOs and People’s Organisations. Poor households have been identified and have been given priority in income generation activities.

The major activities under the project included a participatory social analysis and resource appraisal, ecological assessment of wetland ecosystem, trainings and exposure visits for stakeholders, and planning and implementation of community based enterprises for income generation. The project also facilitated a dialogue on the issues of wetland management through creating platforms and organising periodic events, carried out social and ecological assessments, provided trainings on wetland conservation and organised workshops on wetland resource management.

This project was funded by International Development Research Center (IDRC), Canada; supplemented by Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Indonesia and International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR), the Philippines.

ForestAction Nepal together with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), NewERA, and the Environmental Resources Institute (ERI) carried out the research project in Nepal to address the pressing second and third generation issues within community forestry (CF) in Nepal such as enhancing livelihood benefits, ensuring equity, and managing forest resource sustainably. The general objective of the project was to enhance the livelihood security of rural people, especially the poorest and most marginalized ones, including women and dalits, through the enhancement of socially just, productive, and sustainable CF management and governance. ForestAction led the collaborative research in six community forest user groups (CFUGs) and five meso level institutions of five districts representing hills and Terai of Nepal from eastern, central and western development regions. It also facilitated and supported the national level component of the project that was managed on behalf of “national CF policy learning group”.

This project was carried out with the financial support provided by IDRC, Canada. Beside ForestAction’s leading role on the ACM project, it took a secretarial, often coordinating, and final reflection and reporting role in the national component also.

An informal CF National Policy Learning Group (NPLG) was formed that comprised individuals from the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation, the Department of Forest, FECOFUN, NGOs, bilateral forestry projects, university and independent policy experts. This group under an agreed consensus identified modus operandi, identified key policy issues and designed several action points for multi-stakeholder deliberation and policy learning. The issues that the learning group focused its attention for collective inquiry and policy influence included addressing the stagnancy of Terai Forest Management; exploring the driving forces of Terai Forest Cover Change; and policy process analysis, including a literature review and reflection upon the practices of the policy makers. Separate groups of experts reviewed existing literature, conducted research including field surveys and case studies and reflected those in the meetings of the NPLG.

Funded by ActionAid, Nepal, this project aimed to enhance the capacity of indigenous people by protecting their rights over local resources and their knowledge to manage and use those resources. The project specifically studied the importance of local people's knowledge on biogenetic resources so as to develop strategic measures to protect such knowledge.

A comprehensive understanding has been developed among the indigenous communities and other stakeholders in the Chitwan valley on the issues of indigenous knowledge and intellectual property rights. A good reading material is available now on the issue contributing to the increased understanding of these issues among citizens particularly the indigenous communities. Different groups of indigenous people have increased their collaborative efforts to promote their traditional practices and protecting intellectual property rights.

Project Name: Fostering Health and Livelihoods of Conflict Affected People in Nepal
Project Period: March 2008-February 2010
Financial Support: European Commission

This project was designed to assist conflict affected vulnerable communities to acquire better health and livelihoods opportunities. The specific objective of this project is increased access to essential health care services and livelihoods opportunities to most disadvantaged and conflict affected communities in the selected districts of Nepal. The primary beneficiaries of the proposed action are conflict victims, Dalits, Janajatis, Madhesis, people with disabilities, rural poor, women, youth, children, and other marginalised and excluded groups. The final beneficiaries are the larger communities of 11 project districts covering about 18 percent of Nepal’s population. The 11 action districts of this project include Morang, Dhankuta, Panchthar and Khotang from Eastern Region; Kavre and Chitwan from Central Region; Nawalparasi, Arghakhanchi and Kapilvastu from Western Region; Kalikot from Mid-West Region; and Achham from Far-Western Region. The project is successful in developing self-esteem and trust among excluded and vulnerable communities, NGOs and Community Based Organisations (CBOs); and to open up new opportunities towards promoting peace, social integration, capacity building, rehabilitation, reconstruction, reintegration, inclusion, and revitalisation of the health services and livelihoods improvement.
This project is implemented by a consortium of one INGO, two national NGOs and 11 district based NGOs. The project was started with baseline survey using Rapid Need Assessment (RNA) tool.  Altogether 168 different events related to livelihood, capacity building and health support were carried out within the particular district during the project period, March 2008-December 2009.

This action research project was executed to provide strategic inputs to the forest policy process towards strengthening community rights in Nepal. The political transition, especially the discourses of state restructuring has encouraged forest-sector stakeholders towards a fundamental transformation of forest policies and institutions. In this context the project aimed at generating a brief yet holistic review of Nepal’s forestry sector, analyse the drivers of change and identify the points of departure for a more productive, sustainable and equitable forest governance in Nepal.
The analysis identifies rural livelihoods and environmental sustainability as the twin goals of forest management and foresees a strong role of local communities and local governments in forest governance and management. Therefore it suggests for reducing the sole reliance on state forest bureaucracy. It also identifies the need for an independent and autonomous institution for providing various needed technical and institutional support to the forest user groups. A landscape level comprehensive management with clear and equitable tenure arrangement is crucial for new forest policy strategy in order to meet the dual goals. The study has developed a report providing a strategic analysis with recommendations for transforming the forest sector.

This project assesses the status of community rights across the three ecological zones in Nepal and provides a comprehensive picture of rights situation in different geographical landscapes particularly focusing on the situation in high altitude and Terai (lowlands). Forest tenure reform in Nepal for the last three decades has focused on participatory and community based management. Consequently, almost one third of the total forests are under different forms of community based management regimes where locals are involved in the sustainable management and use of forest resources. However, the forest area handed-over to local institutions vary across the ecological zones. While large part of mid-hill forests is under community forestry, much of forests in the high altitude and Terai are still largely under government control.

The study reveals that community rights are more secure in the mid hills, primarily due to community forestry programme. The high altitude region suffers from remoteness, slow regeneration of forests, lack of required services and institutional conflicts between sedentary community groups and transhumant pastoralists. Similarly, communities’ access in Terai forests is constrained as most of the forest there is either under strict protection or state management. Besides, elite capture has been the key local phenomena in Terai and marginalisation of weaker social groups in decision making and benefit sharing. The study analyses four key determining factors that shapes the tenure arrangements: resource abundance and accessibility, tenure regime, regulatory framework and institutions that mediate access to forests and benefits from forest management. The underlying factors for the variations in community rights across ecological zones are found to be exclusionary historical political processes, economic incentives, forest distribution and settlement patterns and techno-bureaucratic control.

Project Period: August-December, 2009
Financial Support: Rights and Resources Initiatives

The necessity of a productive and equitable management of community resources for generating higher level of pro-poor outcomes, especially the maximisation of economic opportunities at local level, is well recognised. Accordingly, community forestry has shifted its focus from subsistence use to commercial appropriation to generate increased financial benefits. As a result, CFUGs have increased their financial transactions tremendously over the last ten years. Paradoxically, such increased financial transaction at local level has not generated a proportional pro-poor outcome. At the same time, there is a serious lack of comprehensive analysis of the phenomena. Analysis of current fund management is thus expected to help explore innovative and productive mechanism for CFUG fund mobilisation and help deal with issues of increased inequality and poverty at local level. The objectives of the study are:

1. Identify the sources of income of CFUGs,
2. Distribution patterns of expenditure, and
3. Dynamics of decisions making, particularly on formulating investment policies.

In this research, the distribution of expenditure in CFUGs has been analysed focusing on actual financial investment patterns, decision-making procedures, and disbursement mechanisms in six different aspects:  (i) grants and other financial supports to the identified poor households, (ii) investment on commercialisation and pro-poor enterprises, (iii) expenses in forest development activities, iv) costs incurred by CFUGs in infrastructure and community development, (v) institutional and managerial expenditures, and (vi) financial costs involved in democratic practices and decision making arrangement at district and local levels.

With an objective to promote LFP innovations, lessons and insights in the wider policy and practice domains Livelihood and Forestry Program (LFP) and ForestAction had signed a partnership agreement in May 2008. The idea was to capitalise the professional compatibilities and publication experience/windows of ForestAction to capture and disseminate LFP innovations. Within a period of one year, several products were developed jointly by consultants from ForestAction and staff within LFP. The outcomes delivered by the project include:

• • One community forestry good practice paper entitled Community Forestry in Nepal: Promoting Livelihoods, Community Development and the Environment.
  • Published a Journal of Forest and Livelihood: Special Issue on Lessons from Livelihood and Forestry Programme.
  • Published a Hamro Ban Sampada (Nepali journal) focusing on Forestry Program for Livelihood.
  • Published an article entitled Exploring Local Knowledge of Climate Change: Some Reflections in Journal of Forest and Livelihood: Special Issue on Climate Change, Forestry and Local Livelihoods.
  • Four policy briefs (in English) on various topics related NRM and livelihoods.
  • Published two policy briefs in Nepali entitled Challenges of Climate Change and Way Forward, and  Transformation of Terai Forestry in Nepal: A Proposal for National Consensus.
  • Development of a book proposal on community forestry.
  • Organised writing workshop for LFP staff and partners in Kathmandu and Pokhara.

Project Name: Support Dialogue for Strategic Policy Input in Securing Community Rights in Nepal
Project Period: September 2008-August 2009
Financial Support: Rights and Resource Initiatives

This project was implemented in collaboration with FECOFUN. In the context of state restructuring and new constitution building, ForestAction and FECOFUN had agreed to facilitate a national dialogue on the role of local communities in the management of natural resources. ForestAction carried out a strategic analysis of the community rights over natural resources and FECOFUN leads the interaction and lobbying in favor of community right. The major objectives of the project were:

1. To prepare a synthesis overview on the state of art on community rights on forests,
2. To compare various models of resource management and highlight the pros and cons of those models in relation to people’s livelihoods,
3. Draw lessons from three decades of community forestry that could be scaled out and translated to other sectors – health, irrigation and primary education,
4. Expand and strengthen civil society networks to reflect and consolidate voices in favor of community rights, and
5. Promote constructive engagement with policy communities in producing an analytical policy document on community rights over natural resource management.

The project has brought a strategic policy document explaining the situation of security of community rights on forest, land and water resource management which also contains policy recommendations to ensure security of rights, sustainability and livelihoods of local communities. A series of national and regional level workshops were jointly organised with FECOFUN. This initiative has brought community rights and NRM in the forefront of constitutional debate.

Funded by IDRC, Delhi, this project was implemented by FA in collaboration with HIMAWANTI Nepal. This project aimed to examine women’s participation in public decision-making within the context of state decentralization process in Nepal. It seeks to understand women’s role as social actors, as well as the gendered social relations that shape women’s agency in the governance of public resources and services. A total of five clusters representing all ecological and development regions have been identified for the field study: 1) Morang, 2) Kavrepalnachok and Lalitpur, 3) Dang, 4) Dadeldhura, and 5) Mustang.

The focus of the research was on the gendered social relations that shape women’s agency in the governance of public resources and services. This study analyzes the depth and breadth of participation through which women exercise their agency in various policy and socio-cultural contexts of decentralization. The study has also identified some processes and strategies that enhance positive impact of decentralization on women in Nepal.

This research examines the effectiveness of women’s participation in the context of state decentralisation process in Nepal. In particular, the study examines four different spheres of decentralisation, viz., community forestry (involving local groups in the management of national forests); irrigation management (involving farmer groups in the governance of irrigation systems); community school (involving local communities in the governance of school level education); and local governance (with locals at village level and elected political bodies at village and district levels).

Wetland conservation programme was implemented in the Chitwan to conserve the wetlands in the area. The bridging project implemented from April 2007 to January 2008 was funded by the IUCN Netherland under the Ecosystem Grants Programme. The objectives of this project were to strengthen the capacity of the local stakeholders, institutionalise wetland conservation strategies among local institutions and enhance the livelihoods of the local and indigenous communities. While two wetland areas, namely Shanischare and Lamichaur, are specifically targeted in this project, a wide range of stakeholders have been invited to reflect upon and support wetland management issues in Chitwan Valley. The major stakeholders were CFUG, Buffer Zone User Committees, Village Development Committees, the Chitwan National Park, local NGOs and People’s Organisations. Poor households have been identified and have been given priority in income generation activities.

This project was funded by International Development Research Center (IDRC), Canada; supplemented by Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Indonesia and International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR), the Philippines.

This project was carried out with the financial support provided by IDRC, Canada. Beside ForestAction’s leading role on the ACM project, it took a secretarial, often coordinating, and final reflection and reporting role in the national component also.

Funded by ActionAid, Nepal, this project aimed to enhance the capacity of indigenous people by protecting their rights over local resources and their knowledge to manage and use those resources. The project specifically studied the importance of local people's knowledge on biogenetic resources so as to develop strategic measures to protect such knowledge.

This project was implemented from July 2003 to March 2006 in collaboration with the Environmental Change Institute of the University of Oxford, UK and the Foundation for Revitalization of Local Health Tradition, India with the financial support of the Forestry Research Programme of the Department for International Development, UK. The project was employed in two countries, viz. India and Nepal.

A participatory action research on linking people to policy was conducted in Nepal during May-December 2006. Supported by International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR), the Philippines, the project was a collaborative initiative of ForestAction and CIFOR. In a growing concern of how grassroots communities are better connected with the national policy process as well as, the processes at different levels, this project aimed to document and synthesize lessons generated from the 'Multi Stakeholder Learning Fora’ particularly those applying adaptive and collaborative approach as strategies for catalyzing and enhancing pro-people and equity oriented policy-making processes.