On September 28-30, FECOFUN and HELVETAS and other members of the RRI Coalition held two timely and critical dialogues in Kathmandu, Nepal, with leaders of the four leading political parties in Nepal to discuss the need to recognize local people?s rights and grant them full ownership of forests and forestlands. As a result, these leading parties have committed to actively endorse community forestry and protection of community property rights in their platforms for the forthcoming November Nepali election. Representatives from the four parties present have included the community rights agenda in their election manifestos, with many parties expressing their commitments to include these rights prior to the election. The four parties present also endorsed some 40 community forestry activist candidates for the upcoming Constituent Assembly election. The dialogues provided a strategic opportunity for Nepali community forestry advocates to participate in high level political processes, set a precedent for their inclusion in the pre-election process, and have the potential to influence sweeping reforms at a national level, including, but not limited to, the Nepali constitution.