Conflicts in Natural Resource Management – Examples from Community Forestry
Publisher: Österreichische Gesellschaft für Agrarökonomie
Author(s): Dharam R. Upetry
Date: 2006
Topics: Conflict Prevention, Dispute Resolution/Mediation, Governance, Renewable Resources
People everywhere compete for natural resources they need or want to ensure their livelihoods. Such competition for use and access over natural resources result in conflicts. Conflicts also emerge from differing cultural values, social norms and sanctions connected to access over natural resources. Community Forestry is the collective action of local communities in sustainable forest management and utilization. Since the late 1970s, many countries have been practicing such forest management system and Nepal is a pioneer example where such system has passed three decades. The Master Plan for Forestry Sector of 1988, Forest Act 1993, and Forest Regulation 1995 are the legal instruments to hand over state owned forest to Community Forest Users’ Groups (CFUGs) in Nepal. The CFUGs and their national and international networks are the institutional basis for the development of Community Forestry in Nepal. Institutional development of Community Forestry, growing group funding and its utilisation, forest boundaries, group leaders, inclusion and exclusion of users in a CFUG are some of the recent issues for conflicts in Community Forestry. The paper mainly focuses on these conflicts and discusses the relationship among different actors who are involved in Community Forestry. The paper also discusses the impact of Maoist on Community Forestry and the CFUGs’ development intervention.