Miscellaneous
Fecofun against 20-yr integrated plan
The Federation of Community Forestry Users Nepal has expressed concern over the government’s decision to formulate a 20-year integrated plan for Chure conservation and management, stating that it curtails the rights of the local communities over natural resources.The Federation of Community Forestry Users Nepal has expressed concern over the government’s decision to formulate a 20-year integrated plan for Chure conservation and management, stating that it curtails the rights of the local communities over natural resources.
The President Chure-Tarai Madhes Conservation Board has forwarded the 20-year plan for the conservation and management of the Chure region to the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation for final approval.
The forestry users have expressed their concerns stating that the Chure board has no authority to come up with an integrated plan, without consulting with the local communities, for the region separating the Tarai from the hills, which is home to millions of people dependent on forest resources.
“We have been dissatisfied at the government’s decision to declare Chure as a conservation area in 2014 as the decision undermines the communities’ role in forest conservation and restricts their access to the resources they had been managing for long,” said Ganesh Karki, the Fecofun chairperson.
The President’s Chure Conservation Programme launched in 2009 for one of the most vulnerable biodiversity hotspots in the country has received great attention and funding from the government. However, it became controversial for failing to protect the lower hills from deforestation and degradation even after spending a billion rupees.
In June 2014, the government declared the topography spread over 36 districts from east to west as an environment conservation area, prompting the authorities to pay special attention to protecting the region from further degradation, encroachment and logging.
The Finance Ministry has allocated Rs1.97 billion for this fiscal year for river management, flood control, forest conservation, livelihood empowerment and conservation of water resources along the Siwalik belt.