Lalitpur: Minister for Forests and Environment Ain Bahadur Shahi Thakuri emphasized that community forestry should operate in a way that benefits extremely poor and marginalized communities. At the ‘Third National Community Forestry Workshop’ organized today in Lalitpur by the Department of Forests and Soil Conservation, Minister Shahi expressed confidence that the community forestry management system would contribute to the conservation of natural resources and sustainable forest management.
According to National News Agency Nepal, Minister Shahi highlighted the success of the collaborative forest management approach while acknowledging the various challenges faced. He noted that with the practice of federal structure, some policy and legal complexities have emerged, particularly with the differences between federal and provincial laws, which have added challenges in some areas. The Minister stressed the need for uniformity in the distribution of forest produce and revenue sharing between consumers and the government in the future.
Minister Shahi also emphasized that consumers should be made stakeholders in the forest-based products they receive. The Minister of State for Forests and Environment, Rupa Bik, echoed this sentiment by highlighting that participatory forest management can be achieved, citing collaborative forest management systems as an example. She pointed out that challenges in collaborative forest management are increasing due to a lack of policy reforms, institutional capacity expansion, and cooperation among relevant bodies.
Dr. Rajendra Prasad Mishra, the secretary of the Ministry of Forests and Environment, expressed happiness that collaborative forests are different from community forests and noted that they have benefited a population of 5.1 million from 900,000 families. The Dean of the Institute of Forestry Studies at Tribhuvan University, Thakur Silwal, expressed confidence in conducting a study on the benefits derived from the learning and understanding achieved so far and determining how many people have benefited during an analytical data seminar on the condition of the consumer.