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KATHMANDU” April 1″ 2012

Nepal’s community forestry” which has gained much praise for its successful participatory development model” faces an uncertain future as the government is secretly mulling to curtail the rights of community forestry users’ groups (CFUGs) through amendments to the Forestry Act-1993.

A report by a high-level probe commission under Gopal Prasad Parajuli on encroachment” deforestation and community forestry has recommended the government to take back the rights of some 17″000 community-managed forests from Community Forest User Groups’ control. 

As per the committee’s recommendations” the process of handing over of the forests to the communities should be approved by the government entities both at local and national levels. The community forests” which have been already handed over to the communities for years once again would seek government’s approval to operate. The report suggests the government to approve the management of forests stretching over 1″000 hectares of land. Likewise” the Department of Forests” Regional Forest Director and District Forest Office will be responsible for approving the handover of the forests covering area between 500-1″000 hectares” 200-500 hectares and 200 hectares respectively to the communities.

Earlier” DFOs were authorised to hand over the community forests to concerned local community forestry users’ groups based on their proposed action plans. 
The current Forestry Act-1993″ which states that 40 percent of the total area should be forests” accords high priority to community forestry management for the promotion and conservation of forests rich in bio-diversity.

Parajuli-led commission has also recommended the government to increase revenue collection from the community forest to existing 15 to 50 percent. But community forest activists fear the government is trying to take back the rights of community people involved in managing forest.

“In recent years” many parties have shown keen interest in forests as they have become a means to generate money”” said Ganga Dahal” Asia Regional Facilitator of Rights and Resource Initiatives. Dahal says the weak governance at national and district levels has led to significant growth in illegal timber trade in recent years in the Terai” both from community and government-managed forests.

Based on recommendation” former Forest Minister Deepak Bohara had proposed amending the Forest Act and significantly curtailing rights of local communities.  The government has been keeping the report confidential even one year after its submission to the ministry. “That’s not the private property to hide for years. The government has made a huge investment to find out the lapses in conserving natural resources. Therefore it should make the report public and hold discussion for a way forward”” said Keshav Kanel” former DG of the Department of Forest.  Forest activists say the report has not been made public for two reasons. Firstly” government’s decision to backtrack from its move to amend the Forestry Act. The government that backtracked from its move after nation-wide protests of community forest users’ groups does not want to make public the report after realising that the recommendations were totally against the community rights. Secondly” most high-profile forest officials” former ministers and politicians are involved in deforestation so the government does not want to make public. 

However” government officials argue that there is a need to amend the Forest Act after the country witnessed massive deforestation in year 2009-2010 due to irregularities inside community forestry” involvement of the communities in smuggling and lack of transparency in management of the forests. The Parajuli report has stated that the deforestation is increasing inside the community forests as well as national forests on rampant scale.

The report” which was accessed by Post scribe” has mentioned more than 100 individuals” including former Forest Minister Bohara and high-profile bureaucrats and representatives of the community forest users’ group were found to be involved in deforestation. The report has sought action against them for the encroachment of some 100″000 hectares of forest land when Bohara was at the helm.

The government has asked the CIAA to investigate into the matter and take action against those involved in deforestation. Furthermore a field study” prepared by the National Vigilance Centre” had also recommended the CIAA to take action against 16 DFOs. But except for former DFO of Panchthar Ganesh Bahadur Karki” all the other accused forest officials walked scot free.  When asked about the delay in taking action against those responsible” CIAA Joint-secretary Krishna Dhungana who is looking into the issue said: “We are still investigating into deforestation matters.”