Nepal embarked a new decentralized forest management modality called Collaborative Forest Management (CFM). CFM in general is loosely defined as a working partnership between the key stakeholders in the management of a given forest- key stakeholders being local forest users and state forest departments, as well as parties such as local governments, civil groups and non-governmental organizations, and the private sector (Carter and Gronow, 2006).

The same authors also defined CFM as a working partnership between the key stakeholders in the management of a given forest. Berkes (1997) stressed the importance of “trying to develop equitable partnerships, drawing upon the complementary strengths of forest departments and local users” in the co-management of forest resources. Equitable partnerships imply that each partner takes on a share of responsibility and reward for forest management, based on a clear understanding of and respect for the other partners’ rights or entitlements.

Government of Nepal intends to manage the government managed forests of the Terai through the involvement of local government and people in decision-making, implementation, benefit-sharing and monitoring.

Main objective of CFM is to develop sustainable forest management in order to (i) fulfill the need for forest products, (ii) help reduce poverty by creating employment, (iii) maintain and enhance biodiversity (iv) increase national and local income through active management of the Terai and Inner Terai forests.

More specifically CFM aims to:

• create coordination mechanism for multiple stakeholders of Terai productive forests
• Participate multi-stakeholders in decision making from planning through implementation and monitoring to evaluation of active management of forests
• Develop mechanisms for sharing rights, responsibilities and benefits with due consideration of gender and social inclusion
• Develop mechanisms for distribution and marketing of forest products

Reasons of CFM in Terai

• The population composition is far more diverse than in the hills and mountains
• The resource base is leading to greater revenue, which tends to be appropriated by the elites or socially stronger groups
• CF tends to be focused on nearby users, thus excluding the original users of Terai
• CF in the hills was introduced to tackle the problems of deforestation and to provide forest products for the local people, but this is not the case in the Terai.