Reports

As one of the world’s largest non-profit agencies working in international development, CARE International has over 50 years’ experience with poverty reduction across over 60 countries in the South. Following a fundamental review of their overall programme approach CARE made a commitment in 2002 to apply a Rights based Approach (RBA) across the organisation, and in particular with regard to its field based activities.

Nepal is the home of 59 indigenous nationalities distributed in four physiographic regions of Nepal viz. mountain (himalaya), hilly, inner terai and terai. Among them, the Lapcha people live in the Hilly region of Eastern Nepal in the Ilam district. On March 31, 2004, Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) has classified indigenous nationalities into five major categories i.e. endangered, highly marginalized, marginalized, disadvantaged and advanced group/s. Accordingly, Lapcha community is the endangered one.

This paper outlines options for rural communities to participate in climate change mitigation and adaptation activities in the forest sector in Nepal. We look at the various institutional barriers that would need to be overcome, as well as the existing institutional opportunities, particularly in relation to tenure rights. This paper is based largely on “Forest Governance and Climate Change in Nepal” (Pokharel et. al. 2009b), with additional inputs from more recently published studies.

The principle findings are threefold:

Over the last few years, “governance” has become a key transversal issue in development thinking, and the concepts “governance” and “good governance” have gained increasing importance for natural resource management in general and forest management in particular. Forests, and with them the products and services they provide, continue to disappear or to be threatened in many places throughout the world.

Community Forestry program in Nepal is a global innovation in participatory environmental governance that encompasses well-defined policies, institutions, and practices. The program addresses twin goals of forest conservation and poverty reduction. As over 70% of Nepal’s population depends on agricultural livelihoods, community management of forests has been critically important for food and overall livelihoods security.

Carbon financing has emerged as a possible regulatory or voluntary market instrument to reward reforestation. Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) is now being proposed as an instrument for this. Likewise, a substantial section of the voluntary market has shown a willingness to buy forest carbon. This report analyses whether Nepal’s forest sector can benefit from these opportunities, how, and under what conditions.