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The project titled “Catalyzing forest Sector Restructuring in Nepal through Multi-Stakeholder Dialogues at Local and National Levels” is implemented by Growing Forest Partnerships (GFP) Nepal Consortium (the Consortium), comprising of Forest Action, the Federation of Community Forestry Users, Nepal (FECOFUN), the Nepal Foresters’ Association (NFA) and ASMITA Nepal. The Growing Forest Partnerships (GFP) is a joint programme of the World Bank, IUCN, IIED and FAO that supports engagement between forest stakeholders at local, national and global levels that promote greater consensus and action towards tropical forest governance reform everywhere. Nepal’s forest sector is facing unprecedented transitions on several fronts, and the drivers for such change exist both within and outside the country. At the country level, the popular demand for a new structure of the State is now being debated in the Constituent Assembly, with profound implications for forest governance and management. Globally, the emergence of climate change agenda has redefined the scope and functions of forest ecosystems, incorporating the long-overlooked environmental services and the potential for adaptation and resilience. The long history of community movement is also taking new turns, with around 18000 organized community groups already active in forest management. Community based forest management is moving towards capturing emerging market opportunities, but it is facing policy and regulatory hurdles and suffer from the lack of support services. Donors, which have remained the key players in Nepal’s community forestry, are also revisiting their programmes to improve the effectiveness of their support in the changing context. Moreover, Nepal’s historic 20-year Master Plan for the Forestry Sector (MPFS) is expiring soon. Similarly the current Interim Plan, that guides overall development activities of the government and other actors in the country, will expire in July 2010. All this provides an immense opportunity to catalyze the processes of restructuring the state, institutions, and policy in forest governance in more fundamental sense than ever before, by linking diagnostic studies with the processes of multi-stakeholder dialogues and interactive engagements. It was in this context that IUCN was approached by FECOFUN, Forest Action, NFA and ASMITA Nepal to request GFP support to help catalyze community networking and multi-stakeholder policy dialogues in forest governance in Nepal with collaboration of other governmental and non-governmental stakeholders including different community groups, women, dalit and marginalized groups. The purpose of this contract is to channel funding through forest Action to enable the GPF Nepal Consortium to implement this project component of the GFP. This project will foster dialogues and informed discussion among stakeholders on the institutional restructuring of the forest sector for community based management, competitiveness, transparency, and financial self-reliance. By the end of this contract, the consortium will identify specific issues and actions for Locally Controlled forestry (LCF) pilot projects, further diagnostic study and policy dialogues in 2011. For more information, please contact:
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