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Act Amendment
- Community forest groups up in arms
KATHMANDU, AUG 26 -
As the government has given a positive response to a proposal of the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation (MoFSC) to amend the Forest Act-1993, community forests users’ groups (CFUGs) across the country have threatened to stage nationwide protests starting Friday.
The Forest Act amendment that is awaiting Cabinet approval curtails the rights and privileges of community forests users’ groups, the groups said. According to the new rules, the groups will now have to pay a tax of 50 percent from the earlier 15 percent to the government.
According to Apsara Chapagain, the chairperson of the Federation of Community Forest Users Nepal (FECOFUN), around 15,000 CFUGs across the country will gherao all 75 District Forest Offices on Friday as part of their protest programme. They will demand the government withdraw the amendment proposal.
The groups will also gherao the Department of Forests in Kathmandu on August 31 and take out a mass rally and launch campaigns nationwide, she said.
“The ministry’s decision to increase the tax from 15 to 50 percent violates the rights of the local people who have worked hard to conserve the forests for decades,” said Chapagain.
Forest activists and other organisations working for forests have shown solidarity with the FECOFUN protest plans.
“At a time when the country is heading towards federalism where people should be empowered with full rights on natural resources, the government has tried to infringe on their rights,” said Jograj Giri, a forest activist. However, according to government officials,
the amendment was needed to control rampant deforestation in the Tarai and inner Tarai districts. More than 100,000 hectares of forest area was encroached upon in a year’s time, the government says. Of the total area covered by forests, around 23 percent is managed by local communities.
Though the condition of forests handed over to communities in the mid-hills and high-hills is satisfactory, conservation and management of those in the Tarai and inner-Tarai regions are in bad shape, said Yubraj Bhusal, secretary at the MoFSC.
Besides an increase in the tax, the government plans to limit the use of forests by communities in the Chure and other areas and develop an Annual Allowable Harvest system that limits the use of forest products.
Posted on: 2010-08-27 08:20
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