Issue date: Saturday, 30 January 2010 Keeping more forest or biodiversity with many empty stomachs does not make any senseGöttingeli Nepalese Society, popularly known as GöNeS, proudly started to introduce the well-known Nepalese academician in Germany who has already set a standard in their respective field.
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Nepal bans logging for two monthsKATHMANDU — Nepal has banned people from cutting down trees for two months after reports of massive deforestation in its lawless southern plains, a government spokesman said Friday.
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ICIMOD opens office to monitor REDDKATHMANDU: The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development today launched a Project Management Unit (PMU) in Kathmandu to coordinate and manage a project for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) in community forests.
The four-year project (2009-2013) carries out demonstrations on developing a REDD payment mechanism and related activities with aiming to strengthen the capacity of civil societies to take part in the REDD process.
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Valuing natural capital for development decisions
DFID in its conceptual frameworks of Sustainable Livelihoods Approaches (SLAs) defines five types of asset: human capital, social capital (the ability to draw on support through membership of social groups), natural capital, physical capital, and financial capital for achieving poverty elimination. But most services provided by the natural environment (natural capital) to human society are not captured by GDP or other conventional macro-economic indicators, because, they are not directly traded in markets. Provisioning services (food, fibre and water) and a few cultural services (such as recreation and tourism) are somehow calculated but value of regulating services (water and climate regulation) is not calculated yet, although research on regulating services is developing rapidly.
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Poorer nations hit with 'exorbitant' consultancy fees for carbon offset projectsNepalese government has paid a Norwegian consultancy €150,000 (£123,000) to get UN certification for biogas projects.
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Advancing equity in community forestry: recognition of the poor mattersThe community forestry program in Nepal has been advancing as a successful means of improving the condition of forests. However, as in other areas around the world, Nepal’s community forestry initiative continues to face unresolved equity issues. This paper seeks to explore underlying causes of inequity using contemporary theories of justice. Examining two community forest user groups in the middle hill districts, the study finds that lack of recognition in interpersonal and public spheres exacerbated the powerlessness of marginalized people, reducing their participation in decision-making. The paper argues that, while distributional rules advanced by the program are crucial, the problem of recognition remains an unaddressed but necessary pre-condition for advancing equity. This suggests that policy and practice in community forestry needs to focus on broader political questions, including representation in decision making, making space for the voice of members to influence decisions, and transforming socio-economic and political institutions and cultural practices.
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Forests for food security and livelihood sustainability: Policy problems and opportunities for small farmers in Nepal
Title: Forests for food security and livelihood sustainability: Policy problems and opportunities for small farmers in Nepal
Authors: Bhubaneswor Dhakal
Source: Journal of Sustainable Agriculture 35(1):86-115
Abstract:
This study used a novel empirical model of common property to examine problems of forest policy on food security and livelihoods in Nepal. At the opening section, the paper well described agro-ecological rationalities for maintaining some forest areas in each mountain communities. Then it reviewed progression of forest policies that constrained use of resources and services from local forests, and escalated starvations and miseries in disadvantaged communities. The paper nicely articulated progression of forest policies and marginalization of poor people and disadvantaged communities. It has modeled impacts of current and alternative policies of community forestry for rural food security and livelihoods. The intention for introduction of the Nepalese forest policies and their consequences can be a heart breaking for some readers.
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Neither forests nor trees The current political disarray is resulting in calamitous deforestation across the country, and threatens to roll back Nepal's internationally acclaimed community forestry success story.
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Comparison of improved and traditional cooking stove user in terms of firewood consumption
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Sheltering forests for people
International Day for Biological Diversity is celebrated worldwide on May 22 to further our understanding of biodiversity issues. This year, the International Day for Biological Diversity highlights ‘Forest Biodiversity’ to complement the International Year of Forests 2011, declared by the UN General Assembly. The International Year of Forests gives us an opportunity to renew our awareness of the state of the world’s forests, and to realize their role in greening the environment, sustaining life, and providing for people’s needs and wellbeing.
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Growing money from carbonKATHMANDU: Sita KC with a team of field researchers and community forest users group of Dolakha has hiked through dense forests in Dolakha. Guided by the team of forest rangers and other experts, KC and representatives of different community forests in Dolakha have spent days in Charnawati Watershed area spread over 5,996 hectares of forest land to determine how much carbon is stored there.
“Charnawati sequestered a total of almost 4.6 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2011,” said KC proudly.
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Women Grow Carbon Money on TreesKATHMANDU, Jul 4, 2011 (IPS) - When Bina Tamang was told that she could earn money by not felling trees in the tiny forest that serves as the source of fuel and fodder for 65 families in her area, the 27-year-old was incredulous.
That was two years ago. In June, when Tamang was informed that she and over 100 other groups like hers, that have been sharing forests as community property, had been awarded cash incentives worth 95,000 US dollars disbelief gave way to joy.
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Gone are the days of talking only about timber and other forest product in the context of the forest. With these products as it is, another opportunity growing in the forests is carbon. Interestingly, the standing trees could deliver money without dying, and help communities invest on climate-change adaptation.
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USAID Research and Analysis of Carbon Rights and Institutional Mechanisms for REDD+ Benefit DistributionWhile a number of researchers and organizations in the US and internationally have highlighted the potential impacts of mitigation efforts on tenure, there remains minimal information and best practice on how to practically address these issues at the field level.
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Nepalese make money grow on treesThe story of forests and payments for not cutting them in Nepal began in 2003 when the Dutch government funded research on how communities could teach living to conserve forest for the trees can absorb the carbon dioxide released from burning biofuels.
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Community Forestry Unfazed by Political TurmoilGODAVARI, Nepal, Nov 21, 2011 (IPS) - Nepal’s joint forest management system has taken such deep roots that the country’s prolonged political instability has had little effect on it.
"We’re doing well anyway," Ganesh Bahadur Silwal, 65, general secretary of the Godavari community forestry group, tells an international audience seated in an arc around him in a concrete hall in the scenic Godavari valley, 14 km southeast of Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital.
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Ecuador, Nepal and Acre Leading by Example on REDD+ Safeguards
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USD 62 million to Nepal Government Multi-Stakeholder Forestry ProgrammeThe Multi-Stakeholder Forestry Programme is the product of the first multistakeholder design process to be undertaken in Nepal’s forestry sector.
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CCBA & CARE’s REDD+ Social and Environmental Standards: Experience using REDD+ SES November, 2011. REDD+ Social and Environmental StREDD+ SES consists of principles, criteria and indicators that define high social and environmental performance of government-led REDD+ programs. They provide a framework for country-led multi-stakeholder assessment of REDD+ program design, implementation and outcomes.
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How Himalayan communities can benefit from protecting their forestsNepal is one of the first countries in the world to include community forest management in the national forestry policy.
This confers authority to local communities to manage forest resources as forest user groups of an autonomous institution.
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