Nepal is a small landlocked country in the central Himalayas between India and China.The total forest land covers about 5.83 million ha which is 39.6% of the total land of the country (GoN, 1999). This includes 29% with dense forest and remaining with shrubs.  More than 70% people are estimated to be forest dependent. And according to a report (MFSC/NFA 2008), forestry contributes 9.5% to GDP in 2008 with direct products and 27.5% considering environmental services.  According to Forest Resource Assessment during 1990?s Nepal?s deforestation rate is reported to be about 1.7% per year.

   Forest management has been practiced in Nepal since early 90's.The Department of Forests, was established as a state agency in 1942 to manage the forest resources of Nepal (HMG, 1976). However, the focus of the Department was to manage forests without the involvement of the local people. Historically, forest management by the Department was protection oriented and efforts were made to make foresters powerful. To strengthen state control over the forest management process, and weaken the power base of the feudal lords, the private forests were nationalized with the promulgation of Private Forest Nationalization Act in 1957. This act legally centralized the authority of forest management in the Terai (lowlands) and hills under state control, although local communities were informally managing patches of forests adjoining to their settlements. Furthermore, special rights to issue permits even to harvest trees for household purposes were assigned to forest officials with the promulgation of the Forest Act of 1961. This Act gave further authority to forest officer to arrest forest offenders without warrant. Moreover, Forest Protection (special arrangements) Act was promulgated in 1967 to provide additional power to state foresters. It also established one-person special court run by the Divisional Forest Officer.

People on the vicinities of forest are highly dependent on forest for their livelihood as it's the only source to fulfill their subsistence needs like firewood,fodder,timber and in some cases water,so forest management is directly concerned with the local people.But local people were not involved in forest management until 1970's. Realizing the importance of people?s participation in forest management, the National Forest Plan of 1976 accepted the need for people's participation,and mentioned it as its fifth objective(Kanel etal 2005).

    The National Forest Plan was the first government document to accept the need for people?s participation in forest management. In accordance with this plan, the Forest Act 1961 was amended in 1977 to make provisions to hand over part of government forests to a local political unit called ?Panchayat?, a territorially based politico-administrative unit established under the partyless Panchayat system (in operation from 1960 to 1990).

   According to the 1977 amendment to the Forest Act, Panchayat Forest (PF) and Panchayat Protected Forest (PPF) Rules 1978 were brought forward for implementation. These rules officially initiated the implementation of the community forestry program in Nepal. The PF and PPF rules allowed for the transfer of responsibility for forest management from the government to the local Panchayat as Panchayat Forest (PF1) and Panchayat Protected Forest (PPF)2 (Joshi 1993 Bartlett 1992). For better forest management and implementation of these rules, the government launched several community forestry projects with international support. One of the main early projects was the World Bank funded Hill Community Forestry Project, which operated in 38 hill districts. Other projects implemented were the Nepal Australia Forestry Project (in two hill districts), and the Integrated Rural Development Projects with forestry components in the Koshi Hills, Rapti, Rasuwa and Nuwakot Districts in the central and eastern Hills of the country.

 Gilmour and Fisher (1991) defined community forestry as the control, protection and management of forest resources by rural communities for whom trees and forests are an integral part of their farming systems.  Community forestry concept was institutionalized through Forest Act (1993), Forest Regulations (1995), the Operational Guidelines (1995), Revised Operational Guidelines (2001-02), and the Forestry Sector Policy (2000). These legal instruments have legitimized the concept of CFUG as an independent, autonomous and self-governing institution responsible to protect, manage and use any patch of national forest with a defined forest boundary and user group members. CFUGs are to be formed democratically and registered at the District Forest Office (DFO), with CFUG Constitution, which defines the rights of the users to a particular forest. The forest is handed over to the community once the respective members through a number of consultative meetings and processes prepares the Operational Plan (OP), a forest working plan, and submits it to the District Forest Officer (DFO) for approval. The plan has to be countersigned by the Chairperson of the CFUG. The general assembly of the CFUG is the supreme body to finalize the plan before it is submitted to the DFO for its approval. The plan is generally implemented by an executive committee nominated by the general assembly.

     About 850,000 hectares forest areas have been handed over to eleven thousands forest user groups involving over a million households(Bhatta 2001). The CFUGs of Terai alone have contributed 46.5 percent of the total income of the CFUG, while CFUGs in the middle hills and high mountains have contributed 47.8 percent and 5.7 percent respectively. In yet another study, records from Terai and Inner Terai districts show that CFUGs have earned a total of about NRs. 47.9 million, NRs. 77.5 and NRs. 75 million from the commercial sale of timber and fuel wood outside the CFUGs during the fiscal year 2000/01, 2001/02 and 2002/03 respectively (CFDdatabase as of October 2003).However different conditions of high-value and accessible forests, recent settlement and problems in identifying and organizing user groups, together with wide-spread and organized illegal timber-felling, have caused much slower progress.Following table shows  achievements  in the past years:-

Community Forest national Profile

Source: CFD (as of 10^th October 2003)

 The income obtained by the Community Forest are used for the conservation and protection of forest ,for the skill development and upliftment of livelihood of disadvantaged group, poor and ethnic groups and for the overall village development(school,road,communication etc).Community forests have not only been able to maintain the greenery of the country  and maintain forest stock but also have helped in village leadership development.Among the five vital post in CFUG one most be given to the women,so it has increased  women participation and brought them out of the four walls of the house and made them active and independent.It has established bonding among the community people and thus strengthened their unity towards sustainable development.Hence, Community forest has brought about a lot of positive changes in the country in terms of natural resource,social and economic development of the country.

 reference:

 http://www.forestaction.org/app/webroot/js/tinymce/editor/plugins/filemanager/files/8.%20CF_policy_Kanel%20and%20Kandel%20final_june%2029.pdf

http://www.forestsmonitor.org/fr/reports/549391/549395