Problems of Intra- and Inter-group Equity in Community Forestry: Evidence from the Terai Region of Nepal

Abstract

Community forestry – an institution of participatory natural resource management – is based on collective property rights to forests. As it restricts access to forests, it represents a particular solution to the problem of the commons (Gordon 1954; Hardin 1968; Ostrom 1990). Under community forestry, a local community is granted the right to extract forest products, apply silvicultural treatments and regulate access to a specified forest area. In this chapter I analyse problems of equity in community forestry with reference to the Terai region of Nepal. Community forestry in Nepal has experienced considerable growth in recent years: a forest law enacted in 1993 encouraged village residents to form forest user groups. The groups design and enforce a set of forest management rules in cooperation with the state forest administration. By December 1994, 2,756 community forestry user groups were managing 112,626 ha of forests (Hobley 1996: 89).