Problems and Prospects of REDD in Community Based Forest Management System

Deforestation and forest degradation are the second leading causes of global warming. Interest in the potential of avoided deforestation has been growing and solutions to the problems are currently being worked out through the development of proposed mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol (KP) called Reducing Emission Thorough Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). This paper argues that unless a significant change is made in the existing proposal of REDD till Copenhagen in December 2009, prospect of benefiting Nepal’s forest in general and community forestry in particular looks not so encouraging. It is mainly due to factors like poor documentation of deforestation and degradation (uncertainties of baselines), small scale of forests to attract global buyers and Nepal’s low influence in the international REDD policy process, among others. This Paper tries to analyse that, despite achievements in the forestry capital formation, several contentious issues related to the equitable sharing of income among different stakeholders have emerged, and may even threaten the sustainable management of this capital if issues are not duly addressed. Much of the debate on forest‐based mitigation measures are dominated by technical issues and socio‐ecological systems such as livelihoods and biodiversity tend to take a back seat. Finally, the author has forwarded the responsibility of Institute of Forestry in carbon inventory process.