Government proposal to revise Forest Act

Ref: Getting Approval of the Theoretical Subjects to be improved to address the issues Seen in the Management of Community Forest
Approved by Hon. Minister of Forests and Soil Conservation on 2025/3/17

1. Brief Statement about the Subject
About 23 percent of the total forest area in Nepal has been handed over to the local community. Approximately 15 thousands Community Forestry User Groups have been managing these forests. In the Hills, large area of national forest has been satisfactorily protected and managed as Community Forests. Though the handover of the community forests in Terai and Chure is comparatively low, field studies have confirmed a reality that the protection and management of the community forests handed over to the community is not protected and managed to the anticipated level. Giving a due consideration to the suggestions received from the National DFO Workshop and Field Monitoring Report, this policy proposal is prepared to address issues realized in the management of community forests.

2. Comments Received and Other Relevant Issues
Aiming to make the forest product collection and distribution system effective, credible and transparent (thereby uprooting the existing malpractices), on 2066/02/23, the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation received an instruction from the Commission on Investigation of Abuse of Authority urging to prepare a Guideline on the collection, sale and distribution of forest products from the Community Forests and instruct District Forest Office to forbid forest products sale and distribution, even within the group, with the price lower than it was stipulated in Forest Regulation 1995.

3. Reasons to Submit the Proposal
a. Though, Rule 26 of Forest Regulation 1995 mentions that, ‘…….while determining the community forests, the wishes as well as the management capacity of the local users should be considered….’, the standards of management capacity has not yet been well defined, due to which, some groups were allotted with more forest and some groups were allotted with too little forest than their management capacity. This has created conflict by unequal access to forest resources. The confusion in the management capacity standards has also made it difficult to handover the proposed community forests of Terai and Inner Terai-forests that have been protected and long been awaited for legal hand over. Therefore, it is imperative. While determining the forest area for each household, the minimum requirement of the users and geographical regions will be taken consideration.

b. The collection and sale of forest products in government managed forests is regulated by Forest Product Collection, Sale and Distribution Guideline 2057 and Forest Product (timber and firewood) Auction Procedural Guideline 2060. But, guidelines for the collection, sale and distribution of the forest products in Community Forests have not yet been prepared. In the absence of such guideline, the process of forest product sale and distribution is not transparent. Due to the sale of forest products at low price, both the society and the government have been losing a considerable income. . Similarly, because of the disparity in the selling prices of forest products of the community and the government, the income of the society and the government has not been substantially increased. Being indifferent to the need of the district, forest products from the Community Forests have been sold to other districts; District Forest Office has no clear responsibility and role in the Acts and Regulations to have control over the transport of forest products. These are few reasons that have created administrative and legal difficulties to have regulatory control over community forests.

c. Based on the analysis of forest condition and analysis of increment, forestry technical staffs are responsible to put forest management activities and annual allowable cut in the operation plans. But after hand over of the forest, forest staffs don’t have any regulatory responsibilities. Forestry staffs and the executive committee point finger to each other for any irregularities. Therefore, the forest staffs involved in the preparation, approval and implementation and the executive committee of Community Forestry User Group should be made jointly responsible for such irregularities.

d. Section 25 of Forest Act, 1993 has allowed Community Forest User Groups to sell and distribute the forest products independently by fixing their prices. Section 43 (1) has legally recognized Community Forest User Group as an autonomous and corporate body having perpectual succession. Because of this provision, monitoring and evaluation of community forest has not become effective.

e. Multistage field studies by Chure Conservation Task Force of the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation has have pointed out its geographic and geological sensitivity. Probing Committee commissioned by the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation has submitted reports on the illicit cutting in community forests of Chure region. Upon the analysis of such reports and Chure related issues raised by different mediums in Chure and other environmentally sensitive areas, it is imperative to mention management activities in the operation plans based on the “limited use” concept.

f. Field report have shown that in many districts of Terai and inner Terai, operational plans were prepared hastily, in a short period and even before getting institutional maturity, trees were cut within one or two days after the operational plan was approved. No priority to forest management activities; expenditure equaling the income, no matter how much is earned; not allocating fund for poverty alleviation and income generating activities are few examples of irresponsible activities that necessitate the amendment of Community Forestry Guideline, 2052.

g. The organizational structure of Department of Forest is conventional. This conventional structure makes it difficult to regulate the ever growing number of community forests. Analyzing such extra workload (services to Community Forests, monitoring of the Community Forests, protection of government managed forests and expansion of the private forests), it is necessary to improve the organizational structure of Department of Forest.

In the above mentioned context, Hon. Minister of Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation on 2025/3/17 has approved a proposal submitted by the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation on “Theoretical Subjects to Address the Contemporary Issues about Community Forest Management.” Therefore, this proposal has been submitted according to the Annex-1 Number 16 of …..Regulation, 2064 of the Government of Nepal.

4. Provisions to be Decided
To address the weaknesses observed in the Community Forest protection and utilization, it is very necessary to amend the Forest Act, 1993 and Forest Regulation, 1995. Hence Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation will be directed to make necessary arrangements to amend the Forest Act, 1993 and the Forest Regulation, 1995 as given below-

a. Considering the fulfillment of minimum needs of the users, maximum forest area per household will be determined on the basis of geographical regions.

b. The process of forest product collection and sale is not transparent and products have been sold at low price, the society and the government have been losing a big income. Therefore, to facilitate increased income of the society and the government, the following arrangements are needed.

i. Prepare and compulsorily implement the Collection Guideline and Sale and Distribution Guideline for the forest products from Community Forests.
ii. Based on the geographical region and well being ranking, fix the price exactly the same as mentioned in Forest Regulation, 1995 for sale and distribution the forest products within the group.
iii. Sell and distribute forest products to outside groups only when the demand within the district is satisfied. Such surplus forest products should be competitively auctioned with minimum prices according to the market price.
iv. Out of the income received from selling forest products to outside group, make arrangements to deposit 50 percent of it, according to the minimum price mentioned in Forest Regulation 1995, to the Forest Development Fund.
v. While selling the timber and firewood of community forest to outside the group, make arrangement that enable the organizations like Timber Corporation of Nepal (TCN) to enter into a competitive auction

c. Make the forestry officials and Community Forest User Group/Executive Committee collectively responsible during the approval and implementation of the operation plan and forest product sale and distribution.

d. To ensure an effective monitoring, make provisions for a compulsory monitoring through District Forest Coordination Committee.

e. In the community forests of Chure and other environmentally sensitive regions, mention the forest management activities in the operation plan based on the “limited use” concept. In such areas, completely avoid the concept of Annual Allowable Cut. No commercial extraction is allowed, only the dried and fallen trees would be utilized for local supply.

f. Following provisions must be compulsorily included in the amendment of Community Forestry Guideline, 2052
i. Provisions that would allow forest utilization only after a year of operation plan approval
ii. Provisions related to fund mobilization
iii. Provisions that would allow to implement programs of current fiscal year only on the basis of monitoring report of the previous fiscal year

g. Improve the organizational structure of Department of Forest after analyzing the extra workload (service to the Community Forests, monitoring of the Community Forests, protection of Government Managed Forests and expansion of Private Forests) added as a result of the above mentioned changes.

Date: 2025/3/18 Surya Prasad Joshi
(Acting Secretary of Government of Nepal)