Local participants' perception about socio-economic and environmental impacts of community forestry in the Middle Hills of Nepal

This research investigated local participants' evaluation of a government-sponsored community forestry programme in one watershed of the Middle Hills of Nepal, with particular reference to the availability of essential forest products and local environmental condition. Data were collected through household surveys and key informant interviews. Respondents cited a general improvement of forest condition after the implementation of community forestry in 1978, concurrent with a decrease in collection distance and improvements in environmental condition. Shorter collection distance was most likely the result of a smaller constellation of accessible forests, due to community forest protection by other user groups. Community forests are the main source of fuelwood for approx. half the respondents but private forests/land are the main source of fodder for more than fifty percent of the respondents. The community forestry programme in Nepal was envisioned to increase the availability of subsistenceforest products (fuelwood, fodder, timber) in collectively managed forests, yet evidence from this research indicates that this has only occurred for fuelwood. A logical but perhaps unintended result of widespread community forestry implementation is the reduction in total forest availability for a particular household requiring the resource input into private forests. We argue that private landholdings will inevitably become an increasingly important source for meeting subsistence forestry needs of rural households as the number of community forests increase. This research thus paves the way for future studies assessing how private forests are emerging to face this challenge.