Paper presented at a conference on Sustainable and Effective Management Systems for Community Forestry. 15-17 January 1992, Regional Community Forestry Training Centre, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand.

The conference paper presents a positive evaluation of the establishment and implementation of community forestry through user groups in Kabhre Village Development Committee area of central Nepal. It describes the success of the forestry department in setting up user groups and of the user groups in taking on the responsibility of protection and organisation of the traditional collection of dry products. The system was found to be the most beneficial where immediate benefits were available or traditional management systems existed, primarily in terms of leaf litter for compost and fuelwood. However, where management systems had not traditionally existed the user groups relied on the forestry department staff to resolve conflicts. The paper also discusses why few groups had made the transition to harvesting green products which would have increased the benefits of community forestry. Observations made by the authors suggest that crucial factors of success include user-group composition which is decided by the group itself, flexibility, active support of the forestry department, immediate benefits and the reassurance of future security.
Bartlett, A.G., Nurse, M.C., Chhetri, R.B. and Kharel, S.	livelihoods, Nepal, Asia-Pacific Region
Download: Part 1: Summary, Introduction, Background > (163)
Download: Part 2: Forest Resource Management > (189)
Download: Part 3: Evaluation of user group community forestry > (354)
Download: Part 4: Discussion and Conclusion > (285)