Contested Impact of Community Forestry on Equity: Some Evidences from Nepal

Abstract

Despite large scale expansion of community forestry in Nepal, there is no clear and consistent contributions to the livelihoods, especially of the poor. While there are some studies presenting evidences to show this limited positive impact of community forestry, there is still limited understanding as regards why the poor have not been able to reap the benefits as expected. This paper discusses six key factors affecting the ways by which benefits from community forestry are generated and distributed, based onthe findings of a recently conducted participatory action research with four forest user groups in the western hills of Nepal.