Kailali: Irrespective of the termination of the Scientific Forest Management Work Procedure five years back, there is no new provision to manage logged wood and forest produce. It has created problems before a dozen of community forests users’ groups in Kailali and Kanchanpur districts. Woods worth hundreds of thousands of rupees are left to decay in forests, as the users’ groups are not allowed to collect. The forest users’ groups also began facing financial problems because their rights were not established on the use of the wood, including logged trees.
According to National News Agency Nepal, community forest coordination committee’s secretary Bir Bahadur Rajbanshi informed that with the cancellation of the scientific forest management work procedure in 2077BS, the community forests work plan failed to get implemented in the two districts. “It has resulted in double problems- threat to forest conservation, and hindrance to collection of woods.” The legal bottleneck has caused a decay of logged trees which cost millions of rupees, he argued, adding that a new work procedure is imperative to manage the forest well.
Bahadur Singh Mahara, chair of Baijanath Community Forest Users’ Group, also echoed the same concern about why the government did not pay heed to this problem, while forest management is related to people’s livelihood and social activities. Meanwhile, Dirgha Narayan Koirala, secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment, received a 23-point memorandum by a delegation led by Pushkal Bahadur Bam to this regard. The delegation expressed worry about why sustainable forest management was grossly ignored by the government.
The delegation argued forest management was hindered because the province government did not bring a work procedure on sustainable forest management. They also demanded reform in the tax system.