Nepal

Forestry legislation

The Forest Act 2049/93 and the Forest Regulations of 1995 are currently the major regulating instruments for both community as well as national forestry development.

They both aim at developing the forestry sector through decentralization and the participation of individuals and groups basing on the past experience which has demonstrated the importance of people's involvement in forest management.

Forest Act 1993 provides for allocation of nation's government forests into a number of categories: Government managed forest, Community forest, Leasehold forest, Religious forest and Protection forest. The first four are tenure-based classification in which the government may decide to respond to the interests of the parties concerned and allot them with use rights as per agreement reached. Clause 25 of the Act empowers the District Forest Officers (DFOs) to transfer any national forest to the concerned user group as community forest.

Protection forests, unlike the rest, are actually the management regime than the tenure type, which would simply suggest that the concerned forests remain environmentally sensitive requiring a protection oriented management regime.

last updated: Monday, October 1, 2007