Ganga Ram Dahal

• International Expert at Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Nepal’s community forest policies, acts and regulations provide unique example of policy and legal processes that have generated both positive and negative environmental and social outcomes. Community forestry policies and regulatory frameworks evolved substantially since its inception in the mid-1970s, and offer considerable insights for forest se...

Natural disasters and pandemics are evolving as major global threats that are posing an enormous challenge to socio-economic and environmental wellbeing. Using a real time analysis of the impressive role played by Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs) in Nepal in responding to the 2015 earthquakes (Earthquake-15) and COVID-19, this paper explores th...

Despite agriculture being a major source of livelihood of more than 65 per cent of rural population in Nepal, the agriculture sector is facing a significant challenge in recent years due to increasing trend of agricultural land abandonment. A number of studies and assessments have indicated that more than 37 per cent of arable land in Nepal is aban...

Nepal’s community forestry (CF) programme, which has been in place for over four decades and has rich lessons to offer beyond the national border, is the largest tenure reform initiative in Nepal. Tenure security is one of the primary requirements to unlock the ecological and economic potential of CF through the conservation, management, and utilis...

Despite growing international consensus that the use of the policy instrument REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation in developing countries) could be an effective way to reduce carbon emissions from the forestry sector and support bio-diversity with livelihood benefits, there are a range of unresolved issues, including...

SUMMARY The REDD+ policy proposes to deliver multiple outcomes including emissions reduction, livelihood support and sustainable forest management, and thus appears largely compatible with Community Forestry (CF). However, the addition of a new value (carbon sequestration) to traditional values of CF (local livelihoods and ecological resilience) ma...

As the demand for land intensifies, people and governments are facing increasing pressure on the access, management and governance of land and forests. Although there are policies, legislation and institutions to manage land resources nationally, these tools have yet to collectively address the fundamental causes of land conflict and resource misma...

Who has rights to forests and forest resources? In recent years governments in the South have transferred at least 200 million hectares of forests to communities living in and around them. This book assesses the experience of what appears to be a new international trend that has substantially increased the share of the world's forests under communi...

This article reports on findings from a research project, in more than 30 sites in 10 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, aimed at analyzing cases where changes in formal tenure rights for forest-based communities had recently occurred or were in process. Though by far largest proportion of the world's forests are owned by the state, over...

For the last two decades, some countries in Asia have initiated progressive tenure reform in the forestry sector through transfer of management and use rights from the state to the local communities, indigenous groups, local government units, private sector and individual households. However, still around 92% of the forests in South and Southeast A...

This policy paper examines the evolution of tenure reform in the Philippines through a historical analysis of forest policy from the colonial period to the present. It also analyzes the dynamics and impacts of tenure reform and the associated policy changes in terms of the shift in the holder of the bundle of rights and changes in livelihood, incom...

This paper examines the status of community rights under Community Forestry (CF) in Nepal. It takes approval, renewal and implementation of operational plans as the basis for assessing community rights. Based on three cases-one each from the three ecological sites in Nepal, the paper examines how community rights are shaped by the regulatory framew...

This book examines the evolution of tenure reform in the Philippines through a historical analysis of forest policy from the colonial period to the present. It also analyzes the dynamics and impacts of tenure reform and the associated policy changes in terms of the shift in the holder of the bundle of rights and changes in livelihood, income, fores...

"This paper seeks to identify the factors which are responsible for successful management of natural resources when communities are given opportunities to manage those resources. Applying the social capital framework, it analyzes empirical data from the well known case of Kalahan Educational Foundation, the Philippines. The study confirms previous...

SUMMARY This paper identifies strategic weaknesses in the devolution policy process in forest management and analyses the reasons behind them. Further, it establishes the relationship of devolution policy outcomes with governance and institutional structures. The field research was undertaken in the Philippines, taking six cases of community based...

"This paper identifies strategic weaknesses in the devolution policy process in forest management and analyses the reasons behind them. Further, it establishes the relationship of devolution policy outcomes under collective action with governance and institutional structures. The field research was undertaken in the Philippines, taking six cases of...

Despite continued emphasis on devolving forest management authorities and responsibilities to local communities in many countries, in practice genuine devolution of authority and power over the forest has occurred only to a limited extent. Taking evidences from Nepal’s community forestry, this paper argues that the limited implementation of devolut...

Nepal's community forestry (CF) programme is regarded as a successful example of decentralization in natural resource management that fulfils people's forest product needs and enhances environmental sustainability. However, emerging evidence indicate that community forest user groups (CFUGs) - key institutions in managing community forests - are in...

"Over the past few decades, there has been an upsurge of interest in community-based approaches to simultaneously address environment and development concerns. Within forestry, these are commonly referred to as community-based forest management (CBFM). CBFM grew rapidly in the past couple of decades and by 2004 there were an estimated 370 million h...

"This paper analyses the impacts of forest tenure reforms in Nepal on livelihoods, income, forest condition and equity (LIFE). Tenure reform process that began during late 1970s was institutionalised during early 1990s has promoted decentralised and participatory processes in forest management. These reforms towards increased community tenure have...