Sharing Canadian experience on FSC certification with Nepal

By Susan Mulkey, Extension and Communication Manager with the BC Community Forest Association in Canada

Susan Mulkey

Community forestry is happening in every forested country in the world. It is a system that acknowledges that local forests have long served as a source of water, food supplies livelihoods, living space, recreation, and inspiration for rural people. Nowhere has the community forestry movement taken hold in a greater way than in Nepal. The Nepali approach to community forestry has evolved over nearly 30 years out of a desire to devolve control to local people over the land and resources surrounding their communities.

The Federation of Community Forest Users, Nepal (FECOFUN), is the leading grassroots advocacy organization in Nepal. They emerged out of the idea that forest users from all parts of the country should be linked in order to strengthen the role of users in policy making process. All Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs) in Nepal have their own constitution and operational plans that provide the legal basis for the user group to protect, use, harvest and market the forest products on their community forest.

In a country that continues to experience civil unrest, FECOFUN demonstrates courage, innovation and vision in their approach to community forestry.

Susan Mulkey

Nepal is a global leader with many lessons to teach any community forestry advocate, even one from the developed world of British Columbia. In my capacity as the Extension and Communication Manager with the BC Community Forest Association in Canada, I recently visited Nepal to learn from them and to share the BC experience.

Meeting the women involved in community forestry in Nepal was truly a highlight of the mission. The constitution of the Community Forest User Groups (CFUG) calls for membership of the executive to include 50% women. This requirement is challenging gender roles and the caste system that are limiting factors for women in the Nepali social and cultural traditions. It was deeply inspiring to witness the contributions women make to their communities against great odds. I met women that had walked for two days and travelled longer hours than I had to attend at the FECOFUN National Council meeting in Kathmandu. I also spoke with a woman who told me that because of her local CFUG, she had made her own money for the first time in her life.

The efforts to create Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified community forests and their associated enterprises in Nepal are creating new opportunities for poor rural people. Though there has been extensive donor funding and support from professionals outside of the community, the community based effort required to achieve certification is time consuming and requires tremendous efforts on the part of volunteers. Even in the developed world of BC there is only one FSC certified community forest.

Group FSC certification in Nepal is just in the initial stages, yet it has the potential to improve the benefits to communities, bringing down the costs of start up and auditing as well as increasing the potential for critical mass of products required for effective marketing. Though there is still much to do to expand the number of certified community forests the certified enterprises are up and running have created tangible, immediate benefits for the least privileged people in the involved communities.

Susan Mulkey

In conjunction with the Global Alliance for Community Forestry, FECOFUN and BCCFA can together make a compelling case at national and international events to promote and advance at the global level, the distribution of rights to communities dependent on local forest resources, particularly in the upcoming climate change discussions. A comparative analysis of the community forestry experiences in the two countries would serve as a good foundation for further collaborative activities.

I first travelled in Nepal in 1984. In those 24 years, through the efforts of the CFUGs, denuded hillsides are now noticeably reforested. Rural people are proving through their stewardship and structure of the CFUG, that environmental, social and economic values can harmoniously coexist in local forests.

FECOFUN and the BCCFA are the premier organizations for community forestry in their respective countries. As grassroots advocacy organizations, they share the same challenges of leadership, consensus and shared decision making, policy development, membership expansion and effective communication with their membership. Both organizations will benefit from an on going collaborative capacity building program that enables the sharing of experiences and best practices.