Community adoption of forests

The green forest has been limited to the wealth of Nepal. The trees are dying in the forest. The wood/firewood is rotten. But consumers have not been able to use it. The country's revenue is losing. Import of wood from foreign countries is increasing.

The constitution has given the responsibility of national forest management to the state government. Accordingly, the provincial government has the right to collect and sell and distribute forest products including wood. Exercising this right, all the seven provinces have the Ministry of Forest and Environment. There is a Directorate of Forests under the Ministry. There are Divisional Forest Offices in every district under the Directorate. But the federal government enacted the Forest Act in 2076 for the protection of forests, wildlife, environment and watershed areas. Based on that, the forest regulations were made in 2079. Although the responsibility of forest management lies with the province, the regulations have drawn the authority to the association. A rule has been made that the forest tax will be collected by all the three governments. This has led to problems in forest protection, management, use of forest produce and revenue collection along with federalism.

Let's add the context of community forest. According to the data of the Ministry of Forestry and Environment, 41.69 percent of Nepal's area is forested. Adding wood and butane area, the area covered by natural resources is 46.07 percent. Out of the forest area, about two million hectares are managed by forest user groups. 22,400 community forests are active for management. Before the practice of federalism, community forests used to pay 15 percent tax to the federal government. After federalism, all three levels of government have started collecting taxes.

Currently, a rule has been made that the federal government, state and local governments collect tax from forests protected by consumers. There is a rule that the federal government will take 50 percent tax and the local level will take 10 percent of the benefits from community forest. The state has made laws to levy 15 to 25 percent tax as per their wish. Consumers who have protected the forest with three taxes are angry. Some are against it. Some have stopped conserving and selling the produce. This causes wood/firewood to rot within the forest. Revenue is lost.

In Lumbini province, it has become a rule that the provincial government will collect up to 25 percent revenue from the current financial year. The government of Lumbini state in the financial bill of fiscal year 2080/081 was asked to deposit 25 percent of the income and also 25 percent of the income from the domestic sale of wood in the state reserve fund. This caused the community forest users to protest. After the protest was not heard, the consumer approached the Supreme Court. On October 17, the tax was stopped after the court issued an interim order. In addition, the community forest users have also demanded to change the rule that forest areas should be double-checked when transporting wood outside the group, and that forest areas can be mined randomly in the name of minerals. If this does not change, whether the wood cut in the forest and prepared for sale will be sold or not, it is not decided.

Lumbini province has 974 thousand 381 hectares of forest area. There are 4,034 community forests dedicated to forest management and protection. Last year, the government had set a target of earning 1.5 billion rupees from the forest sector. The revenue was only 146 million rupees or 9.73 percent. This year, the target was to raise 1.80 billion rupees. Until the end of half a year, i.e. the end of January, only 4.16 percent i.e. Rs. The problem of not getting revenue from forests is the same in other states, local levels and the federal government. According to

experts, like other crops, trees are perennial crops. It should also be planted new, grown and harvested when ready. Otherwise the tree withers and rots. A valuable tree used only for firewood. Forest management is therefore important for both income and forest conservation. Earlier, scientific forest management system was implemented to get immediate and long-term benefits from forests and to increase forest utilization. This system was removed after protests. Currently, a forest management system based on the promotion system of cutting mature trees in the forest, pruning others and growing young ones has been started. In this 80-year conservation cycle is created and the forest is pruned and protected.

For sustainable forest management, maximum use of wood and regular income, Lumbini province started a forest management system based on promotion system from December 2079. For the first time in the country, Kapilvastu started the practice of cutting mature trees, pruning others and growing young ones. Such management has now reached 315 forests. Consumers are also attracted to this as they can benefit immediately and save the forest for the future as well. However, when the government does not integrate and increase forest revenue and there is no understanding between consumers and forest workers, there is still a problem in using forest wood/firewood and increasing revenue.

Consumers have greened many bare hills. Deforestation and theft of crops have been stopped. Biodiversity and environment have been protected through forests. Helped in poverty alleviation, forest enterprise, tourism, empowerment of women and marginalized communities. In such a situation, a community-friendly forest use policy should be made, rather than irritating the users of community forests and increasing the tax burden. The conservation and use policy should not be made in such a way that the rights of the forest community protected by the community are taken away and there is no ownership. Imposing threefold tax on community forests, making community forests protected areas, and banning the use of forest products should be stopped against the rights given by the constitution.

In 2046, the then government made a forest development master plan for 21 years. Based on the same master plan, the community forest program was developed and expanded through the Forest Act in 2049 and the Forest Regulations in 2051. After seeing that forest protection and utilization cannot be done only by government agencies, the concept of community forest has come to say that the community will grow, increase and benefit from the forest.

Therefore, it seems necessary for the government to become a supporter in protecting and managing about two million hectares of forests in Nepal and increasing the income of communities from forests. Forests should be considered not only as a means of greenery and environmental protection but also as an opportunity to sell wood/firewood. For that, forest management based on promotion system should be implemented to get immediate and long-term benefits in all forests.