scholarly journals Conflict management strategy adopted in community forestry of Nepal: a study of four community forests in midwestern region

1970 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-52
Author(s):  
GR Acharya ◽  
Y Yasmi

This study focuses on two types of conflicts in Community Forest User Group (CFUG): conflict between User Group Committee (UGC) and user, conflict among users. Users were found impaired from the UGC decisions and their pattern of benefit sharing. Conflict also existed among users. Major strategies adopted to manage conflict were found to be either avoiding or forcing; but avoiding is the most widely used strategy. Moreover compromising and accommodating were found less frequently compared to forcing and collaborating that were rarely used. This study challenges the common perception that community forestry of Nepal is successful in managing its conflict. The findings of this study do not support this claim because collaborating strategy has rarely been used in Community Forest (CF) conflict management. In contrast, this study shows that avoiding and forcing were more commonly used. The greater application of avoiding and forcing strategy in conflict management indicates that CF is still lagging in realizing the best possible option of collaborating. This finding also challenges the effectiveness of the existing conflict management mechanism in CF. This study also suggests collaborating strategy as a better option for managing conflict. On the other hand, this study also reveals that CF is not benefiting the poor of the community. Though, many scholars trumpet CF as a successful programme in Nepal, this study points out that CF has not yet been able to manage its conflicts in a more constructive way. The study also pinpoints short comings of existing conflict management strategies that could be addressed to improve its performance in the days to come. Key words: Benefit sharing, community forestry, conflict, strategy   doi: 10.3126/banko.v18i2.2172 Banko Janakari, Vol. 18, No. 2, 44-52

1970 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 26-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Parajuli ◽  
RK Pokharel ◽  
D Lamichhane

A study was carried out to analyze the existing social discrimination among Community Forest User Group (CFUG) members. Two CFUGs representing heterogeneous ethnic groups in Syangja district were selected to examine the participation of CFUG members in Community Forestry (CF) activities, benefit sharing and fund mobilization system. PRA/RRA tools like questionnaire survey, wealth ranking, key informant survey, triangulation, and informal discussion were employed to generate primary data. Statistical parameters such as percentage, mean, ANOVA, and contingency coefficient were used to interpret this data. The perception of local people was measured on the five point Likert scale, and Chi-square test was applied to interpret this result. The participation of the poor, disadvantaged group and women were minimal in CF activities but their presence was more at the time of forest product distribution. Timber had been distributed less to the poor and disadvantaged group (DAG) households than to others. More than 65% CFUG members were unaware about CFUG fund. Their overall perceptions of CF management were not positive. The result clearly demonstrated discrimination between the rich and the poor, male and female, and DAG and non-DAG within the CFUG. Key words: Community forest user group; discrimination; participation; disadvantaged group; poor DOI: 10.3126/banko.v20i2.4799 Banko Janakari Vol.20(2) 2010 pp.26-33


2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sushma Bhattarai ◽  
Prakash Kumar Jha ◽  
Niraj Chapagain

In spite of the widely accepted success of Community Forestry in reviving degraded land, it is still seen as being unable to provide tangible benefits to the poor. This paper illustrates that through continuous sharing, deliberation and negotiation among the poor and non?poor members of Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs), management of community forests can be made far more equitable than the usual scenario. Drawing from the experience on the processes and outcomes of Livelihoods and Forestry Programme (LFP), this paper brings empirical evidence of how facilitation support has enabled the poor to have more equitable access to community forests. Three key pro?poor institutional arrangements resulting from the facilitation process include: a) establishing special use rights arrangements within CFUGs for the poor, b) pro?poor silvicultural practices, and c) equitable forest product and benefit distribution mechanisms. The paper suggests some changes in policy and practice to institutionalise these outcomes. Full text is available at the ForestAction websiteDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jfl.v8i2.2304 Journal of Forest and Livelihood 8(2) February 2009 pp.1-15


1998 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 385-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter N. Duinker ◽  
Reino E. Pulkki

In June 1997, we visited the Magnifica Comunità di Fiemme (MCF), a community forest in the Alps of northern Italy. We have prepared this article to help broaden the perspectives of Forestry Chronicle readers on community forests and what they mean in various parts of the world. We first describe the area and its forests, and then give a brief history of the MCF. Then we review the forest-management strategies used in this Norway spruce forest, and summarize the logging and wood-processing activities of the enterprise. We continue with a comparison of this community forest with three community forests in Canada, concluding that generalization on what makes a community forest successful is dangerous — each situation is unique. Finally, given that the MCF recently won permission to use the eco-label of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), we discuss our perceptions of how the MCF operation does and does not meet the FSC's Principles and Criteria of Forest Stewardship. Despite several shortcomings, we believe that the MCF is in most respects a sound example of sustainable forest management.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 401-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Basnyat ◽  
T. Treue ◽  
R.K. Pokharel

This paper explores the forest bureaucracy's practices of implementing community forest policies in Nepal and how this shapes the realities of community forestry for forest user groups. To this end, we conducted a content analysis of community forest management plans; surveyed 74 community forest user groups; conducted intensive field observation in six community forests and interacted with executive committee members and forest bureaucrats from two western hill districts. Our results show that forest user groups were hardly aware of their formal rights, including the obligations of forest bureaucrats to deliver free-of-charge services and technical support. Nobody holds forest bureaucrats accountable for failing to fulfil this part of their official duties. Rather, the forest bureaucrats have established different legal and extralegal processes and mechanisms through which they regain and maintain control over community forest resources. We call this 'bureaucratic recentralisation', and it allows forest bureaucrats to reap personal benefits, including unofficial revenues for delivering statutorily no-cost services.


2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 325-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNA LAWRENCE ◽  
KRISHNA PAUDEL ◽  
RICHARD BARNES ◽  
YAM MALLA

In the context of action research in community forests, stakeholders' values for biodiversity can be elicited, communicated and understood with the help of a multidimensional conceptual framework. This incorporates levels of diversity (genes, species, habitats and processes), types of values (direct use, indirect use, option and existence) and stakeholders. This paper explores the effect of using this framework on forest monitoring, learning and communication, and wider implications for conservation, in Baglung District (Nepal). Monitoring was initially an unfamiliar concept to villagers, but the process clarified its purpose, whilst helping to elicit and exchange values and knowledge amongst stakeholders. This precipitated proposals for silvicultural experimentation and social inquiry into the diversity of users' needs. The framework allowed the translation of local value statements into categories recognized by other actors. It aided external stakeholders in understanding the factors contributing to values held by community forest users. Villagers' appreciation of ‘quality’ forest did not necessarily equate to the most ‘biodiverse’ forest, but rather the greenest and densest and that stocked with useful species. Elite domination, tenure and access to markets affected values assigned and behaviour in forest management. Elicitation of these values provoked questioning of forest management decisions and benefit sharing among community forest users. This, in turn, stimulated more democratic forest management and more inclusive, wide-ranging biodiversity values. Participatory monitoring is more conceptually challenging than is usually recognized, and the links between equity and conservation merit further attention in different cultural contexts.


2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 14-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bishnu Hari Poudyal ◽  
Govinda Paudel ◽  
Harisharan Luintel

Since forests are both source and sink of carbon, scholars have suggested reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, including conservation and sustainable management of forest and enhancement of forest carbon stock (REDD+) to be part of climate negotiation. Studies have shown that forests can play a role in reducing emissions in a cheaper, quicker and effective way, while generating important co-benefits, including biodiversity conservation and watershed management. However, governance that shapes relations between different stakeholders at grassroots level has been shown to be a crucial issue in managing local forests in a way that sequester more carbon from, and emit less of it to, the atmosphere. The authors of this paper argue that the lessons gained at community forest user group (CFUG) level regarding forest governance could be useful in designing a REDD+ governance structure at grassroots level. For this, both positive lessons and challenges faced so far could be documented, analyzed, synthesized and shared at broader level. REDD+, being an external intervention to local communities, can bring a range of challenges that influence the governance dynamics. However, if the programme is managed carefully, CFUGs are capacitated adequately and governed collaboratively, REDD+ may bring synergistic outcomes with existing community forestry at grassroots level, particularly by bringing both environmental and livelihood benefits.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jfl.v11i2.8618 Journal of Forestry and Livelihood Vol.11(2) 2013 14-26


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-196
Author(s):  
L. Puri ◽  
I. Nuberg ◽  
B. Ostendorf ◽  
E. Cedamon

Operational plans are a key element in community forestry in Nepal. However, the relevance of these plans to forest user groups (FUGs) is under scrutiny. This study investigates the usefulness of operational plans against the backdrop of knowledge, capacity and management practices of FUGs. Data were collected from 13 operational plans, 16 group discussions involving forestry professionals, and 218 household interviews in two villages of Lamjung district in Nepal. Whereas operational plans should specifically reflect site specific objectives and activities of forest management, the survey revealed identical objectives across the community forests. Current operational plans are technically complex, poorly linked to the place-based context of livelihood needs and less useful to the FUGs to inform and enhance forest management. This study proposes to differentiate community forests according to their production potentials, and revise the operational plans by shortening the elements that have little or no relevance to the FUGs.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1643 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Gross-Camp ◽  
Iokine Rodriguez ◽  
Adrian Martin ◽  
Mirna Inturias ◽  
Glory Massao

We explore local people’s perspectives of community forest (CF) on their land in Tanzania and Bolivia. Community forest management is known to improve ecological conditions of forests, but is more variable in its social outcomes. Understanding communities’ experience of community forestry and the potential benefits and burdens its formation may place on a community will likely help in predicting its sustainability as a forest and land management model. Six villages, two in Tanzania and four in Bolivia, were selected based on the presence of community forestry in varying stages. We found that communities were generally supportive of existing community forests but cautious of their expansion. Deeper explorations of this response using ethnographic research methods reveal that an increase in community forest area is associated with increasing opportunity costs and constraints on agricultural land use, but not an increase in benefits. Furthermore, community forests give rise to a series of intra- and inter-community conflicts, often pertaining to the financial benefits stemming from the forests (distribution issues), perceived unfairness and weakness in decision–making processes (procedure/participation), and also tensions over cultural identity issues (recognition). Our findings suggest that communities’ willingness to accept community forests requires a broader consideration of the multifunctional landscape in which it is embedded, as well as an engagement with the justice tensions such an intervention inevitably creates.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 13-22
Author(s):  
P. K. C. Bhandari ◽  
P Bhusal ◽  
B. B. Khanal Chhetri ◽  
C. P. Upadhyaya

Women participation has been in discussion for long in community forestry in Nepal - a successful programme in participatory forest governance. Despite having ample of policy instruments to address the women concern in community forestry decision making activities several pragmatic issues have been encountered. This paper examines on the women participation in different community forestry decision making activities and identifies the factors influencing participation in such activities. The evidences were generated from five community forest user groups in Kaski district. The analysis was based on the household surveys that included the random sample of 213 respondents (107 females and 106 males). Similarly, regular triangulation and verification of the data were made through series of interviews, discussions and observations followed by the analysis of CF documents. Three ordered logit regression models were deployed to examine the determinants of women participation in decision making in forest management, resource utilization and participatory activities. The analysis showed lower participation of women in community forest decision making activities. Gender had the significant association with the participation in all decision making activities. The men with higher education, who are the member of executive committee and have access to community forestry fund, had participated significantly more than women in community forestry decision making activities. Low participation of women was associated with lower representation in user group committee, social and traditional beliefs and preoccupied assumption that women cannot lead which may result in unfair implication of community forestry.


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