Nepal’s community forests take a step closer to certification
With an astonishing 40% of Nepal’s population involved in community forestry, the importance of this community-based forestry in the country cannot be overstated.
Nepal’s community forests take a step closer to certification
22 October 2014 News
Over a quarter (or 1.6 million hectares) of the total forest area in Nepal is managed by more than 18,000 community forestry user groups (CFUGs).
However a lack of knowledge, information and practice of sustainable forest management means these community forests have not yet been able to profit from the benefits of forest certification.
In response, in 2012 PEFC supported a project led by the Global Alliance of Community Forestry (GACF) to raise awareness of sustainable forest management and the importance of forest certification. At the same time, the project partners also carried out a scoping study to analyze the potential for creating a viable certification system for CFUGs in the country.
Since 2012, a range of workshops have been carried out across the country, at local, district, regional and national levels, to introduce forest stakeholders to the role of sustainable forest management and forest certification. Alongside representatives from CFUGs, non-government and governmental organizations, the role of women in community forestry was highlighted through the participation of women in every workshop.
These workshops not only provided the opportunity to raise awareness of sustainable forest management and forest certification among a wide variety of stakeholders, but also gave these stakeholders the chance to discuss the issues and challenges they face, and what can be done to overcome them.
In addition to the workshops, a media campaign was carried out around Nepal through the country’s national and local press, radio and television, bringing the project to a much wider audience.
With this project now coming to a close, it is time to move on to the next steps towards developing a national forest certification system in Nepal. PEFC will continue to provide support to GACF, FECOFUN, Green Foundation Nepal and other local stakeholders as they begin the development of the Nepalese national standard for sustainable forest management.