| Biswo |
Posted
on 26-Oct-00 12:18 AM
This time ,let's talk about villages and
forests.The community forests.Probably
majority of us here in US are familiar with
the term in Nepali context.
To stem the rapid deforestation of Nepal's
jungles, the government of Nepal in 1993
handed over certain forest areas to rural
communities.The conditions for such hand over
were amazingly relaxing: people could apply
for protecting and developing certain part of
forest, and the government ,with the approval
of local DFO, would handover the lands to the
people.Those people were free to use the
earning for the village development,the
earning will be tax free, and 25% of which
was expected to be used in further forest
development.The personal benefits for each
group members were also possible in the form
of graze collections, and tree logging.
The program became a huge success in the
following years in mountain regions.There
are about 9000 Community Forest's Forest
Users Group, and district like Kavre and
Kaski has seen their barrening lands again
repleted with verdant,dense and towering
trees.Villagers has seen their development
funds increasing, and such funds have been
used in making roads and drinking water
facility in otherwise neglected hinterlands.
(It is to be noted here ,for cautioning any
rash assessment: World Bank which studied
the terai area community forest development
termed the project to be "total failure".But
it was also not a wrong evaluation.Only two
hundred(or less than that) of such groups are
in terai, and almost all the jungle in Terai
is controlled by government.Forest officers
are considered especially venal in terai for
their excessive penchant for taking the
forests as if it is their private property.
Terai community forest program has met
several hurdles from the start,so lets forget
that rightnow.)
Ok. Now, after caring for seven years, as
our ban upavokta samuha(Forest Users group)
are starting to benefit from those forests,
the government has issued an edict
prohibiting people from entering the forest
they have been taking care of since so long.
The groups are now no longer allowed to take
benefit from those forests, no grazing, no
daura collection, nothing.It is widely
believed that the greed of local forest
officers who couldn't control their
temptation may have caused this decision to
happen.
Now, the villagers(the official counts says there
are more than 950 thousands of household
organized in ban upavokta samuha) are
protesting this shortsighted decision of
government.950 thousands household!! This
number is really great, probably greater
than the total membership of any of our
political parties.
Let's hope that the government will
reconsider its decision.
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