Background:

The management of Nepal's productive and biodiversity-rich Terai forests have been a major issue of debate and discussion in recent years. Despite the successful community forestry modality in hills, it is argued that the management challenges in Terai are not as similar to hills. With the result, the application of hill community forestry model could not be a viable and sustainable option in Terai. The major justification behind this argument is mostly based on the social and biophysical setting of Terai. In addition, this argument is also supported by the fact that that the community forestry model does not address the issue of distant users' as Terai mostly does have large segments of population living far way from the forest areas.

Researchers argue that the sustainable management of Terai forest does not only support national and local economy but also environment conservation in biodiversity hotspot zone. Despite their high contribution to the national economy, the issue of benefits to local communities and their involvement in managing productive forests has only recently been discussed in Nepal and largely after revised forest policy in 2000.

Following the approval of the revised forest policy 2000, Government of Nepal (GoN) embarked on a new participatory forest management modality called “Collaborative Forest Management” (CFM). With the endorsement of the above policy, three CFMs are being piloted in the central Terai since 2005. In addition, district forest sector plan identified other possible CFM areas in the various districts of Terai region of Nepal. Among these possible sites, CFM plans are prepared and committees have been formed in few areas such as Halkhoriya of Bara district, Banke Maraha of Mahottari district etc. Through the CFM approach, MFSC intends to manage productive Terai forests in collaboration with the local stakeholders (e.g. local government and forest users) with a benefit sharing of 75:25 respectively (25% going to forest users). As an attempt to involve local stakeholders, MFSC approved CFM guidelines in 2003. However, the management modalities of productive Terai forest are still under discussion to make these more participatory and decentralised.

Rationale:

With the implementation of CFM operational guidelines 2003, MFSC approved the piloting of CFM in Terai. In addition, tenth five year plan and the PRSP, also highlighted the need of carrying out scientific management of collaborative forests on experimental basis in suitable areas among the national forests by forming groups of local community. Three CFM groups, namely Sabaiya (Parsa), Sahajnath (Bara) and Rangpur (Rauthat) have been operational under the approved CFM management schemes since 2005. In addition, fourteen potential CFM sites are proposed as identified in the district forest sector plans of Terai districts (Bara, Parsa, Rautahat, Sarlahi, Mahottari, Nawalparasi, Rupandehi, Kapilbastu, Banke, Bardia, Kailali and Kanchanpur).

With this piloting, CFM in Nepal has tried to bring together the different stakeholders' considering the spatial configuration of the Terai (close and distance users are often from the different ethnic backgrounds) while using the learning from the community forestry and different participatory management modalities operational in other countries.

CFM in Nepal is still in its initial stage. Based on the experiences so far, CFM can be further improved and made more acceptable to all stakeholders as an appropriate participatory forest management modality promoting active management of productive Terai forests. CFM can also harness the opportunities for poverty reduction through income from the forest goods and services and wider participation of forest dependent people in decision making process. Much can be learned from exploring these examples. 

The CFM workshop on managing collaborative forest management in the Terai region of Nepal will bring a wide range of stakeholders' together to share experiences related to different aspects of CFM, in particular institutional arrangements, policy and legal framework, livelihood opportunities for local communities. The workshop will highlight possible strategies for strengthening, up-scaling and purposeful management of CFM to benefit the poor people.

Objectives:

The overall objective of the workshop is to share learning from CFM implementation and to explore possible strategies for strengthening, improving and up-scaling CFM models.

Specific objective include,

• Review technical, social, institutional and policy aspects of collaborative forest management
• Identify constraints to and opportunities for managing CFM for local livelihoods and poverty reduction
• Develop a strategic plan for promoting and up-scaling collaborative forest management 

Expected Outputs:

• Review of CFM (SWOT) with recommendations based on two themes (see below)
• Documentation and dissemination of CFM lessons and learning
• Road-map for up scaling and strengthening CFM
• Commitment by a broad group of stakeholders to promote and up-scale CFM modality in suitable areas
• Policy and legal framework related actions and amendments identified
• Emerging climate-change related forest sector issues identified and their interface with future CFM charted out

Paper and Oral Presentation:

Focus Areas/Thematic

Two themes/focus areas of the workshop are:

Theme 1: Policy and institutions

Enabling framework such as supportive policy frameworks and institutional norms and cultures are essential for the proper implementation and sustainability of CFM. In this regard the experiences within the programme area are diverse. Presenters will share lessons regarding challenges and opportunities of policy frameworks and institutional arrangements. Possible paper on this theme could be:

1. Enabling framework for strengthening CFM modality (policy, legal arrangement, SWOT Analysis)
2. Enabling framework for multi-stakeholders' forum, networking and convergence
3. Strengthening of existing CFM structure for up scaling: An analytical perspective
4. Linking CFM with other Community Based Forest Management (CBFM) : Policy and Practice

Theme 2: Operationalization aspects of policy framework

Operationalization of a policy framework is the key for achieving impacts in the field. Extensive experience has already been gained during the past few years of CFM implementation although it is assumed that governance issues are best dealt by local community and meso-level institutions. However, very limited analysis has been undertaken on policy and institutional issues within and between government and community groups. This thematic area will explore how participatory systems of resource management are being used by different actors and the local community within the existing enabling framework. It will also try to critically analyse how these systems are contributing to governance issues and their functional relationships (both vertical and horizontal) at local level. It is believed that CFM plays a significant role in promoting rural livelihoods. CFM objectives are also increasingly focused on promoting sustainable rural livelihoods. This is particularly relevant in the Terai districts of Nepal where many people are living in rural areas. Thus forestry plays a significant role in the socio-economic fabric of the rural population. We expect presenters to share experiences on the contributions of CFM to sustainable livelihoods, with economic evidence of the cost-benefits of CFM and lessons on how CFM complements livelihoods of communities living close to and distant from the forests. Possible papers on this theme could be:

1. CFM as a vehicle for decentralisation and multi-stakeholder perspectives with clear focus on decentralized financial mechanisms and their sustainability (e.g. DFDF, DFCC guidelines, forest development fund, and interface with DDC etc.). 
2. PES as incentive based mechanisms in CFM based on goods and services provided by local forests (watershed-related services, biodiversity, eco-tourism and carbon)
3. Challenges and prospects of CFM in Nepal: An experience from central Terai (ACOFUN)
4. Status and sustainability of livelihood initiatives, focusing on poor and disadvantaged
5. Potentiality of micro-enterprises development in CFM
6. Forest law enforcement, governance and trade issues

Individuals and organisations are invited to present papers. Moreover, the academic and professional contributions, community members from different CFM sites will exhibit their achievements.

Key note

The workshop will begin with the key note address on “Why Nepal adopted CFM in Terai and What are its challenges and prospects?” by one of the joint secretaries of the MFSC/FACD or DoF.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Abstracts to be submitted must be:

• In English and Nepali language;
• Not more than 200 words;
• In MS Word;
• The text (including tables) should be double-spaced; left and right justified and typed using a 12-point Times New Roman font. The text should be typeset on A4 and a 2.5 cm margin on both sides of the page. Separate paragraphs by a blank line and do not indent at the beginning of paragraphs;
• The title should be upper case and bold;
• The name of the leading author should be underlined and his/her email address given. Proper affiliation to Institution(s) should be made with superscripts and centered.
• Abstracts should be submitted in hard copy and as an attached document by email to the workshop facilitator dcpokhrel@yahoo.com, rmsbhandari@gmail.com 

Papers should meet the following requirements:

• The content shall be of original nature and not published elsewhere;
• Contributions shall be related to one of the workshop topics and themes;
• The author should clearly indicate to which theme the paper submitted corresponds;
• All papers must come out with clear-cut conclusions and recommendations for way forward
• Final versions of the papers shall be in English or Nepali and in A4 format ready-to-beprinted and not more than 10 pages (preferably 450 words per page);
• Scientific citations will be accepted with references listed at the end of the paper
• Papers should be submitted in hard copy and as an attached document by email to the workshop facilitator dcpokhrel@yahoo.com, rmsbhandari@gmail.com

Organiser:

Central Regional Forest Directorate, Hetauda

Contact persons:
Arjun K.C.
Rajendra Man Singh Bhandari, BISEP-ST/RSU, rmsbhandari@gmail.com
Devi Chandra Pokharel (dcpokhrel@yahoo.com)
Laxmi Dutta Bhatta (SNV/BISEP-ST) lbhatta@snvworld.org

Important Dates:

• September 10 , 2008 Deadline for paper abstract
• September 15, 2008: Notification of authors about acceptance of papers
• October 5, 2008: Deadline for ready-to-be-printed papers.
• October 15: Final selection of participants
• October 20-21, 2008: Workshop at Hetauda

Contract Address

Biodiversity Sector Programme for Siwalik and Terai (BISEP-ST)

Regional Support Unit
Hetauda, Nepal
Phone: 0575225049; 057522923
Email: bisepstrsu@ntc.net.np,
rmsbhandari@gmail.com

Central Support Unit
Babrmahal, Katmandu
Phone: 014227632
Fax: 014242640
Email: csu@bisepst.org,np;
dcpokhrel@yahoo.com