People Participation in Community Forestry Programme A Case Study Ranke Community Forestry Programme Pyauly Village Development Committee Bhojpur District, Nepal

Abstract

Nepal is very rich in terms of forest resources and biodiversity. A broad range of ecosystems flourishes in relatively small area of land in Nepal. The forest resources have made a significant contribution to economic and social development of the country. Besides, forests are indispensable as a life support system for people in the Inner Terai, Hills, and Mountains, where agriculture, livestock and vegetation influence the ecology of the area and the livelihood of the local population in Nepal. The general objective of the study was to identify and analyze the people participation in Community Forestry programme around pyauli Bhojpur District of Nepal. Community forestry was introduced in Nepal in 1978. The community forestry approach has been highly successful for conservation of forests in hilly region of Nepal. People are playing an important role in sustainable development of community forests. However, their role is neither properly identified nor explored.The study focuses to the people's participation in community forest programme of rakha Community Forest User Group. To explore the target issues, some general and specific objectives are made. The general objective of the study is to find the people's participation in community forestry programme activities whereas the specific objectives of the study are: • To find out people participation in Ranke community forestry user group's activities. • To find the socio-economic condition of community forest user's in study area. • To find the causes affecting women's participation in community forest management RCFG of Bhojpur district is selected for the present study. The reason for the selection of the site is convenient for the researcher, which is held on the basis of exploratory and descriptive research method. The study is based on primary and secondary data and the nature of data is qualitative. Among the total households, only 114 households are chosen by caste or ethnicity for the study. Respondents were selected for interview and male as well as female were selected according to the convenience for household survey. Key informants collected house hold survey and focus group discussion also used to collect information. According to the field survey, Female literacy rate is 56.94 percent and only 32.41 percent household heads are female. In forest resource collection, females involvement in firewood collection is 53.25 percent, in grass cutting is 64.07 percent and low participation in timber cutting and collection because hired workers also has been used. Participation in grass and firewood collection of female is higher man the rest. Participation of Females in general meeting of RCFG is only 26.21 percent and participation of males 73.79 percent. Participation of female in attending meeting was like audience is high. Taking part actively in general meeting, sharing in decision-making and discussion is very low. Women involvement and the government policy minimum 1/3 of the committee members must be female but in RCFG committee there are just 2 female members among 15 members of the total committee. According to the field study, there are so many obstacles for peoples participation in community forest activities, such as; traditional concept about programme, dominated culture, household work load, lack of knowledge about community forestry, poor economic condition, lack of permission to attend meeting, lack of empowerment, feeling of women needless to participate in public concern, less chance to view for women in every sector of development activities, illiteracy etc.