Youth Empowerment and Digital Innovation Constituency upholds this area highly positioned by the Federation of Community Forestry Users Nepal (FECOFUN) They work to provide young people with the knowledge and resources required to play an integral role in CFs sustainable management throughout Nepal.

FECOFUN approaches extend beyond more conventional forestry training efforts. They recognize the pivotal place technology assumes in contemporary forest management. This new partnership support builds upon powerful existing training provided by FECOFUN, offering staple workshops on GIS (Geographic Information Systems), forest resource analysis, and CF Data Portal usage for young forest technicians – as well as social media platforms and email access.

The importance of this is very significant, particularly in the current times where digital literacy has grown imperative. A prime is the creation and ongoing development of a robust, online CF Data Portal. It provides a central repository of information about facilities to collect and store data related to the status of individual Community Forests. In an attempt to do that, it will not just help improve monitoring and tracking (which alerts for local planning processes) but also build transparency between the center & state as well in those communities where people now have a more direct say. Having this data readily available allows decisions to be made with insight and foresight regarding how we can better protect these precious resources going forward.

FECOFUN further leverages the youth by conducting workshops and events targeted on Youth and Digital Innovation. By providing training on how to handle devices and equipment such as GPS devices, and audio recording tools for gender-disaggregated collection of data combined with participatory mapping exercises that include socio-economic information in the accompanied area can encourage their active participation both during field visits as well forest inventories.

This makes them skillful and gives the sense of ownership to protect from their end which contributes a huge support in terms of sustainable management of Community Forests.

FECOFUN’s Mobilization and commitment to protect the Community Forest will make young people fall in love with contemporary subjects such as Youth Empowerment and digital Innovation because this is a proven way that without digital technology for group discussion, we cannot enjoy their golden age. By making sure that the appropriate information, understanding, and tools reaches young people at an early age, FECOFUN is able to prepare for a future where youth are installents of those cases.