Sustainable Management of Forest

Basically, to manage the forest by adopting the concept of sustainable development is the Sustainable management of the forest. The issues of environmental protection, economic prosperity, and socio-cultural development through the sustainable management of forests are a matter of interest and concern of the local communities and civil societies, private sector at the national and international levels. Therefore, for the sustainable management of forests, the principles, criteria, and indicators of sustainable forest management have been formulated and practiced at the international as well as at the national level considering the local context. In addition, in different countries local people and indigenous communities who are managing the community forests have developed their own plans and standards, community values, or good practices for sustainable forest management.

More than 40 percent of the total forest area of Nepal has been managed as community forest while other forests are government-managed forest. Forest management activities have been carried out on the basis of a forest management plan in accordance with the federal Forest Act (2019) of Nepal.

The Government of Nepal has decided to formulate the national standards of sustainable forest management. Accordingly, the Ministry of Forests and Environment has formulated the standards for sustainable forest management in the final stage with 5 principles and 26 indicators.

International Commitment for the sustainable management of forest:

Forest-Related Principles: Out of the 15 forest principles adopted by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, the principles of forest management which was also a voluntary guideline gives topmost priority to the promotion of socio-cultural aspects, environment protection and ecological balance, integrated management of all natural resources in the forest, the livelihood of forest-dependent communities and full and effective participants of forest-dependent Indigenous Peoples and local communities in forest management. In addition, the principles emphasize the importance of forest management in economic prosperity, supply of goods and services, energy supply, climate change mitigation, and adaptation, food security, and call for research and investment in forest management.

Non-legally binding instruments on sustainable management of all types of forests: This global document, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2007, states that there should be a political commitment as well as the national policy commitment and cooperation for sustainable management of all types of forests and the sustainable forest management must provide the significant contributions to global sustainable development goals including poverty reduction and environmental protection. In addition, the document gives emphasis to the full and effective participation of all stakeholders, including the local communities in preventing deforestation and degradation, enhancing economic, social and environmental development to improve the livelihoods of forest-dependent communities through forests, increasing sustainable supply of forest products and increasing international cooperation for sustainable forest management. The document also mandates the member countries to formulate clear criteria through a participatory approach for achieving the goals and objectives of sustainable forest management at national level.

Sustainable Development Goals: In goal no. 15, definite goals have been set for sustainable management of forests, according to which the importance of contributing to the sustainable development goals by sustainable management of all kinds of forests has been given high importance. Therefore, the national standards of sustainable forest management should be guided from the SDG goals.

Development of Voluntary Standards for Sustainable Forest Management: The World Food and Agriculture Organization (WFO) has developed standards for sustainable forest management, which are considered by the countries as a basis for developing sustainable forest management standards. The Sustainable Forest Management Standards developed by the World Food and Agriculture Organization emphasize on community rights over forests and good governance, livelihood and food security, production of forest products and economic development, conservation of biodiversity, and mitigation of climate change and land management. Similarly, the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) has developed standards for sustainable forest management focusing on timber production, emphasizing on policy adaptation, improvement on forest conditions and productivity, biodiversity and ecosystems conservation, and socio-cultural and economic upliftment. In addition, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) have also been practicing voluntary standards of sustainable forest management with the aim of promoting export or trade of forest products by certifying sustainable forest management.

Nepal’s Policy Efforts for Sustainable Forest Management:

A conducive environment must be created by policies and laws for sustainable forest management. The provisions made in Federal Forest Act, 2049 and Forest Rules 2051 (1995) had assimilated some principles, bases and indicators of sustainable forest management. In the Constitution of Nepal (2015), a constitutional policy has been adopted to follow the concept of sustainable development while managing forests and natural resources. As the overall provisions of the Forest Act 2019 are aimed at environment protection, economic prosperity and social development through forest management, it can be said that Nepal’s forest related law is oriented towards the concept of sustainable forest management.

Among the various sectoral policies implemented in the forest sector of Nepal, Climate Change Policy, 2019 has adopted policies and strategies to mitigate climate change through sustainable forest management and National REDD+ Strategy (2018) has adopted different 12 strategies to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation through sustainable forest management.

Similarly, Sustainable Forest Management is considered as an important aspect for emission reduction in the climate change-related Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC, 2020-2030) and long-term Emission Reduction Strategy (2021-2050). Similarly, the National Adaptation Plan of Nepal (2021-2050) has made a provision to carry out climate change adaptation activities through sustainable forest management while in climate change-related Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Strategy and Action Plan (2077-2087 AD), strategies have been adopted to ensure access of women and marginalized communities to services, monetary and non-monetary benefits through sustainable forest management. Similarly, biodiversity policies and land use policies have also adopted strategies to conserve and utilize biodiversity and land by promoting sustainable forest management. Thus, all the policies in the Forest, Environment and Biodiversity sector of Nepal have made clear provisions regarding sustainable forest management and the criteria to be included in it, which has led to balanced implementation of environmental, economic and socio-cultural dimensions of sustainable forest management.

Concerned issues of the communities in Sustainable Forest Management Standards:

Government agencies, Community Forest user groups, forest-dependent local communities, Indigenous people’s organizations, private sector involved in the commercialization of forest products and researchers have different views on the issues to be included in the Sustainable Forest Management Standards. The important issues that are to be addressed in the sustainable forest management standards to secure the rights of the local communities including Community Forest Users groups are as follows:

• Sustainable Forest management should be defined as community-friendly.
• The legality and criteria of sustainable forest management standards should be clear.
• Respect of autonomous rights of CFUGs
• Recognition of forest-related customary institutions of local communities
• Respect bio-cultural rights
• Use of simple, easy, community-friendly technology and tools should be encouraged
• Provisions for the revision of the forest management plan
• Provisions for non-timber forest products
• Compensatory mechanism for the forest land-use change
• Transparency in the investment
• Conservation of CITES species
• Human-wildlife conflict management
• Participatory monitoring evaluation and promotion of good results
• Forest-based Enterprises Development