8 February 2012 Source: AlertNet -- Today, a quarter of Nepal’s forests are managed by nearly 20,000 community forest user groups (CFUGs), the first of which were established by non-governmental organisations in the 1980s. The Nepalese government helped replicate the pioneering programme in areas where deforestation was taking place. Now more than a third of the population is now involved in the groups, which collectively manage 1.1 million hectares (2.7 million acres) of public land. [more...]