Over the past few decades there has been increasing threat of forest fires, driven by both climate change and anthropogenic factors that are having profound environmental, economic, and social impacts. Communities in affected areas are lacking in essential resources and specialised equipment, frequently relying on rudimentary tools like shovels, spades, and even branches to combat fires. The shortage of trained personnel and no effective coordination mechanisms further amplify these challenges, sometimes resulting in tragic loss of lives.
ForestAction Nepal and Australian Himalayan Foundation has partnered to work together to enhance the protection of communities, livelihoods and biodiversity from climate-driven and human-caused fires.
Forests are vital to maintaining ecological balance, supporting biodiversity, and providing resources for local communities. However, forest fires pose a significant threat to these ecosystems, causing extensive damage to flora and fauna, degrading soil quality, and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. The need for effective forest fire management has become increasingly urgent due to changing climate patterns and human activities that heighten the risk of fires. The "Training and Consultation on Forest Fire Prevention and Response" project aims to address these challenges by empowering local communities, stakeholders, and forest management personnel with the knowledge and skills necessary to prevent and effectively respond to forest fires. This project focuses on enhancing awareness, building technical capacity,and promoting sustainable practices to reduce the occurrence and impact of forest fires.
This project is a joint initiation of ForestAction Nepal and The Asia Foundation. It aims to foster socio-ecological resilience to climate change by enhancing collaboration between local governments and Community Forest User Groups in Nepal. Recognized as a pioneer in community-based forest management, Nepal’s community forestry model has successfully increased forest cover and promoted local democracy and equitable resource sharing. Despite these successes, gaps remain in maximizing the economic potential of community forests, mainly due to limited collaboration between CFUGs and local governments. This project addresses these challenges by evaluating current regulatory frameworks and identifying opportunities for LG and CFUG partnership to enhance sustainable, productive, and equitable forest management. With a focus on climate resilience, the project will employ comprehensive field assessments, policy reviews, and stakeholder consultations in Galyang and Tikapur municipalities, representing Nepal’s diverse geographic and socio-economic contexts. The outcome of this project will include actionable insights and policy recommendations aimed at strengthening forest governance and fostering sustainable, climate-responsive forest management practices. This initiative will ultimately support long-term resilience, benefiting both local communities and ecosystems.
The project, “Promoting ecologically sound and socially just forest landscape restoration through co-production of knowledge and local capacity building,” aims to address the pressing issues of forest degradation and biodiversity loss in the central Himalaya. It seeks to establish a more inclusive and ecologically informed approach to forest restoration by integrating scientific research, traditional knowledge, and the needs of local communities. The project will develop strategies and frameworks for sustainable restoration practices and enhance the capacities of local actors. By using a participatory approach, the project will produce actionable knowledge to guide restoration efforts across diverse ecological regions leading to resilient forest landscapes and enhanced socio-ecological outcomes.
The project’s main goal is to restore degraded patches of forest for enhanced biodiversity and forest carbon. The following four objectives have been established to achieve this goal, and different activities and practices will be carried out under each of these objectives.
As a part of the Paris Agreement, Government of Nepal has submitted its revised NDCs (nationally determined contributions) for mitigating the climate change impacts, where forest restoration is one of the key areas. By 2030, the Government of Nepal plans to further increase its forest coverage, where restoring the forests of Chure region is one of the core aspect. However, there has been prevalence of issues such as economic aspects of past and present forest restoration programs including their environmental and social impacts, lack of understanding and existence of conflicting evidence regarding the restoration effects. There has been existing knowledge gap in the aspect of effectiveness, costs, and benefits of previous or existing tree-planting and forest restoration and amount of carbon sequestration. Additionally, there is a need for examination on regards of sustainability of forests, forest restoration incentives and impacts of restoration programs on livelihoods, employment generation, poverty, and gender equity between households and communities. Thus, the project aims to generate information and knowledge for designing and implementing effective nature-based climate solutions and access to financial resources to support forest restoration.
There has been a global debate about the need to change food and farming system to prioritize soil health, nature, and human well-being rather than merely increasing production. In response, international and national policies are being formulated, and efforts are being made worldwide to improve food and agricultural systems. Agroecology and sustainable food systems are critical components in addressing ongoing social, environmental and health challenges. Recognizing the need for improvements in these areas, our project is dedicated to enhancing policies and practices related to agroecology and sustainable food systems in Nepal.
The project, Hamro Ban, Hamro Bhawishya: A community- powered Restoration Project in Nepal Chure Range, is aimed at initiating activities focused on conserving biodiversity and improving livelihoods through afforestation, reforestation and forest regeneration projects. The proposed Community-based Biodiversity and Carbon Improvement project in Nepal is to tap into the voluntary carbon finance to be invested in native tree plantation that enhances the capacity of forest sinks and mitigating forest emissions while contributing to local livelihoods and biodiversity conservation. This is a stepped up climate change action taken by local population that safeguard forest ecosystems and are incentivized for their actions. The Project will be taken up in Koshi Province, Madhesh Province and Sudurpaschim Province in Nepal and other areas upon potential scale up of the Project.
The project “Enhancing livelihoods from improved forest management in Nepal (EnLiFT 2)”, is a forestry research project with funding assistance from the Government of Australia through the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). The project builds on the success and lessons of the 5-year project FST/2011/076, Enhancing livelihoods and food security from agroforestry and community forestry in Nepal, also known as the EnLiFT project.
EnLiFT is a collaboration among two international organizations and five national organizations. In its six-year tenure (1 December 2018 – 30 Dec 2024) it aims at understanding the socio-ecological impacts of Active and Equitable Forest Management (AEFM); improving local government planning in the context of rapid social, economic and political change; strengthening the Community Forestry User Groups (CFUG) system in the context of new local government powers; reducing gender inequality in community forest decision-making; low-labor input activities that are suitable for time-poor women; tree-based enterprises that could be deployed on under-utilized land (UUL); a new institutional framework for regulatory and institutional cooperation between the CFUGs and local governments; pro-poor forest based enterprises models; alternative regulatory structures for marketing forest products; and responses to the disconnection between research and policies for improving livelihoods.
Major Themes and Priority Actions
Active and Equitable Forest Management (AEFM)
– Application of AEFM in community and private forests.
– Capacity building of communities and stakeholders.
– Analysis of changing socio-ecological dynamics.
– Research supported policy making in forest management.
Planning and Governance
– Develop and apply inclusive planning framework in community forestry.
– Test and institutionalize models of Community Forestry-Local Government (CF-LG) planning.
– Test and institutionalize gender equality models in community forestry.
– Facilitate strengthening of research-policy interface in forestry planning and governance.
Forest Based Enterprises
– Analysis of forest enterprises and value chain.
– Understand and facilitate regulatory reforms in forest based enterprises.
– Promote pro-poor and gender equitable forest based enterprises.
– Facilitate research backed policy process towards promoting forest based enterprises.