Operationalizing a Framework for Assessing the Enabling Environment for Community Forest Enterprises: A Case Study from Nepal

Bishnu Prasad Sharma,Mani Ram Banjade,Steven Lawry,Rebecca Mclain,Naya Sharma Paudel,Anukram Adhikary

doi:10.1007/s11842-020-09433-w

Bishnu Prasad Sharma, Mani Ram Banjade + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-020-09433-w

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Abstract

We demonstrate how Baynes et al.’s (Glob Environ Change 35:226–238, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.09.011) framework can be operationalized as a tool for identifying potential intervention points for supporting the tenure and governance-enabling environment for CFEs. We do so by applying the framework to a sample of CFUG-managed CFEs in Nepal to see how they measure up as a group with respect to the five success factors. Our study suggests that for CFEs to thrive, they will require policy and legal frameworks that devolve commercial harvesting rights to economically valuable products, and provision of processing locations and licensing practices that are not overly restrictive. The findings will be useful not only for Nepal, but for many other countries dependent on forests for their economic development and whose inhabitants rely on forests for their livelihoods.

Highlights

Over the past 3 decades, a trend toward devolving forest rights to indigenous peoples, communities, individuals, households, and firms has emerged in developing countries (Larson and Dahal 2012)
To operationalize Baynes et al.’s (2015) model as a diagnostic tool, we developed a set of indicators for each of the five success factors and piloted the tool by collecting data on those indicators for 12 community forest enterprises (CFEs) managed by Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs) in Nepal
We provide some background context about the communities, CFUGs, and the sampled CFEs

Summary

Introduction

Over the past 3 decades, a trend toward devolving forest rights to indigenous peoples, communities, individuals, households, and firms has emerged in developing countries (Larson and Dahal 2012). Attention has focused on supporting community forest enterprises (CFEs) so that forest dwellers can capture a greater share of the value of products harvested from community-managed forests (Antinori and Bray 2005; Bray et al 2006). Forest rights were vested in the state, and district-level forest agencies regulated most uses of forested land and products. This began to change in the 1970s, when Nepal embarked on a national initiative to devolve forest rights to forest-dependent communities. Reforms were consolidated during the 1990s, when significant forest use and management rights were granted to Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs). Forest cover has improved markedly in many areas under CFUG control (MFSC 2013; DFRS 2015; Gurung et al 2013)

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