Department of Forest is organizing the Fifth National Community Forestry Workshop from November 9-11, 2008 at Nepal Administrative Training Academy, Jawalakhel, Lalitpur.

FIFTH NATIONAL COMMUNITY FORESTRY WORKSHOP
November 9-11, 2008
Transforming the forestry sector: Setting new directions for community forestry

1.    Background and rationale
In Nepal, community forestry and related models of community based forest management (CBFM) are considered a significant development success. However, forest sector is facing a number of unfolding challenges and opportunities, resulting from changes within and outside the sector.

The national processes of political restructuring will have wide consequences for governance of the forest sector. Indeed, the process of new constitution building is likely to unsettle even the existing consensus on power and benefit sharing along with the emergence of new sets of actors and political institutions. Alongside historic opportunities for restructuring of the state, there is also a challenge to communicate the potential of communities in local governance to political representatives, building on the achievements Nepal has made through community based forest governance. At a wider level, the global process of climate change is creating local impacts, including added vulnerabilities for poor and marginalized groups whilst carbon sequestration by community forests offers additional opportunities for communities. Even within the widely recognised approaches of CF and CBFM, issues of inclusion and equity have surfaced more prominently than ever, demanding additional policy and institutional innovations towards inclusive and equitable governance. While CF and CBFM have worked well in specific contexts, there are still contentious issues related to sharing of powers and benefits (e.g. in the Terai and high Himalaya).

Despite several ongoing multi-stakeholder policy processes and events in the forest sector, there is still an untapped opportunity for Nepal’s forest stakeholders to capitalise on past lessons and utilise unfolding opportunities for transforming the forest sector. In addition, there is an urgent need to discuss and agree on a vision and broad strategy to harness the potential of forest sector in promoting enhanced livelihood opportunities for the poor and socially excluded, conservation and ecological services, economic benefits and democratisation of institutions.

2.    Workshop objectives:

1. Review the experiences of CF/CBFM and identify lessons and insights that can be used to transform the forest sector. Key issues for deliberation include: participation, stakeholder collaboration, sharing power between communities and different layers of government, grassroots democracy and local development.
2. Identify, share and promote diverse CF/CBFM innovations that can help in the process of state restructuring including the potential of community self-governance, decentralization and local governance. Key issues include: analysing and sharing the achievements of community based forest governance in local level democratisation, local development etc to new sets of actors and political decisions makers.
3. Critically review the weakness, challenges and constraints of CF/CBFM and identify their potentials. This will include developing a common understanding among stakeholders on what communities can do by themselves and what additional service roles should be taken up by government (central and local levels), professional civil society organizations and the private sector.
4. Consolidate a multi-stakeholder policy process. A key aspect of this is to pool insights and recommendations from the workshop into a diverse policy development process and develop a mechanism to use this to continuously follow up the outputs and recommendations of the workshop.

3.    Workshop themes

Governance
-    State structure including decentralisation and local governance
-    Community level governance
-    Equitable distribution of benefits
-    Service management and regulation
-    Role of the private sector

Environmental Services
-    Payment for environmental services
-    Community forestry and biodiversity conservation
-    Community forestry and carbon trade / climate change
-    Vulnerability, resilience and adaptation to climate change

Economic Contribution
-    Contribution of CF to economic development and employment
-    Household level economic impact
-    CF/CBFM - their impacts on GDP
-    Commercialisation and forest-based enterprises

4.    Workshop structure
The workshop will combine one key note presentation and 3-5 other presentations on each of the three themes, along with thematic parallel sessions.  

Key-note presentations will be made in the plenary on the first day. In the parallel sessions, other specific presentations will be made, followed by group discussions on key issues, visions and strategies. Outputs of parallel sessions will be shared in the plenary.

All the presentations will be in Nepali language.

5.    Who should attend
The workshop is primarily targeted for the stakeholders of Nepal’s forest sector - especially those in community forestry or other related models of CBFM. The workshop invites interested participants from government organizations, non-government/civil society organizations, academic institutions, local communities, international organizations and programmes, researchers, policy makers, and local government bodies.

6.    Call for presentations
The Organizing Committee now calls for expressions of interest for presentations in the above three themes. A half-page abstract on the content and method of presentation should be submitted by September 15, 2008 September 29, 2008 to the workshop secretariat. To make discussions lively, a range of presentation styles are welcomed beyond traditional paper presentations.  The submitted abstracts will be reviewed by the Organizing Committee and selected presenters along with any suggestions will be notified by Sept 30 October 5, 2008.

Final papers or presentation details should be submitted by October 15, 2008 October 20, 2008 to the workshop secretariat. 

7.    Registration
Interested persons should complete the registration form (available at the Secretariat office and the conference web site: www.dof.gov.np) and submit to the secretariat by September 15, 2008.
Participants will pay registration fees of Rs 500. Those who cannot afford this fee and would like to apply for sponsorship may complete a sponsorship form (available at the Secretariat office and the conference web site: www.dof.gov.np). The organizing committee may waive the registration fees for some deserving participants.  
The organizing committee will finalize the list of participants by September 30, 2008.

8.    Venue
The venue of the workshop will be Nepal Administrative Staff College, Lalitpur.
Location map is given in the website.

9.    Organizers
Department of Forests

For more information, please contact
The Workshop Secretariat
Community Forestry Division
Department of Forests, Babarmahal, Kathmandu.
Tel: 4247599/ 4228954     Fax: 4224903
email: cpfd@wlink.com.np
Or visit the website: www.dof.gov.np

DoF Press Release (in Nepali)