NTFP In Community Forest
Means Of Rural Poverty Alleviation

By Hari Krishna Uprety

NEPAL is a mountainous country. Majority of the people live in rural areas. More than 40 per cent are below poverty line. People primarily depend on agriculture for their living. They are using indigenous knowledge for resource management. However, their management practice, commitment and dedication are really exemplary and appreciable. The efforts made by the community forest user groups (CFUG) are being appreciated across the nation and overseas as well. Community forest is a model piece, which is attracting donors over the years.

Success

It can be said that community forests are most successful evidence of natural resource management in Nepal. It is also accepted that, community forests are the models for participatory resource management. The approaches of participation are also being replicated in other similar areas of development. This lesson was first learnt from the practices of community forests.

More than 80 per cent people are living in the rural areas. Agriculture is the primary means of their living. It is supplemented by the forest resources basically to fulfill the energy demand and for cattle raising. In some parts of the country, people have taken up the forest resources as the income-generating sources by conserving, collecting and selling non-timber forest products. However, the income generated from the forest products is not significant due to lack of knowledge of entrepreneurship development in the rural community.

The government has handed over the degraded forest land to the community. People take over the forest lying in the area of their access and their surroundings. Rural people therefore, are managing those degraded forests that are nearly impossible to manage through the HMG's management intervention practices. Well-managed and productive forests are not being handed over to the people. However, HMG managed forests are comparatively deteriorating more than the community forests.

It is obvious that financial and other additional resources are sufficient in the HMG's management with respect to the rural people. Furthermore, such resources are far beyond the access of rural community. However, unbiased judgement reveals that the community forest managed by illiterate and off hand people are comparatively better and more productive than those managed by highly skilled people with adequate resources of the government. Everybody should appreciate the contribution of the rural people.

In the beginning days of community forest management, people focused on the protection of tree species only. Most of the user groups ignored other species including non-timber forest products (NTFP) and swept them away during weeding, thinning and pruning. However, after the implementation of proper management system by the community, herbal and other non-timber species also found favourable habitat to grow up. People have become aware and understand the value of forest products over the days due to the regular contacts of local, regional and even by the foreign traders.

Nepal's Far Western Region has a potential for herbal collection, production and sale. People are collecting and selling the forest products without considering the regeneration capacity over the years. The seasonal herb collectors visit the area from southern part and even from India. Local herb traders also collect different herbal as well as non-timber species e.g. Ritha, Amala, Timur in the cheapest price and they sell in high price in Terai and India also. Due to this, local people are deprived of the income of their own resources. Moreover, it is very difficult to shift their age-old practice of agriculture to the development of herbal business enterprise.

The situation has been gradually changing over the years. It has become possible due the emergence of different local NGOs and CBOs. These are being assisted by different donor agencies for changing the attitude of local people and to explore their indigenous knowledge in conservation and development of resources. As a result, people are gradually orienting towards the conservation and management of NTFP within their community forest. For this, people have started to establish gender-wise NTFP conservation and management groups. Some of them have also developed herbal management cooperatives by merging the set groups. Development of cooperatives has been made for the easy handling of NTFP and for convenience of rural people. Field based NGOs and CBOs are working as a facilitator in formalising and institutionalising the user groups and cooperatives. People have started to cultivate different indigenous and exotic plant species in a commercial scale.
Hope

It can be hoped that when the people enriched with a threshold level of awareness, NTFP available in their community forest and cultivated in their private land will be the means of poverty alleviation in the rural community.

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