Decision making at the hands of local users is the singlemost important charecteristic of Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs) in Nepal. The nature and effectiveness of decision making depends on the ability of those CFUGs who are at the helm of leading the user groups.

The physical charecteristic (landscape and vegetation types) of most Community Forests in Nepal demands a carefully and scientific approach in decision making to run day-to-day business of the CFUG owned forest lands.

This blog entry will talk about how some spatial analysis tools that are currently available might help the members and the guild of CFUGs in Nepal to better understand and formulate plans and policies that would best serve the need of conserving their forest land in a sustainable manner.

Geographic Information System (GIS) is an emerging branch of geo-spatial science that is prolificly used in the west to manage natural resources such as the forest lands and watershed areas. In Nepal GIS is in its infancy, however with proper trainings and initiatives to involve local population, GIS can fast replace the centuries old tradition of 'tea hut chat sessions' common among our village folks in making decision regarding their forest lands based on a proven science.

GIS can gather and analyze raw data to output results as desired for planning purposes. Map producing is just a very popular output mode for the results generated by using GIS tools. Thus, limiting the use of GIS to producing colorful and attractive maps and graphics will be an act of ignorance for one very powerful analysis tool.

In the west, GIScience has grown leaps and bounds over the years. In Nepal, we professionals are still far behind in catching up with the very basic concept and possible usage of this science. Don't blame the government and other Non-goverment organizations (NGOs) for not promoting the use of GIS in Nepal. They got problems more severe to address than to ponder on what and how GIS might help those in need.