REDD+ and community forestry in Nepal

Community forestry (CF) has often been seen as the key to implementing REDD+ in Nepal. Despite sharing the objective of managing forests sustainably, REDD+ likely poses threats to the original objectives of CF. This chapter explores the question whether community forestry can maintain its central objectives of forest management, livelihood improvement and social equity, while also contributing to climate change mitigation in the light of experiences of communities involved in pilot activities of REDD+ in Nepal. The chapter shows how the implementation of REDD+, with its emphasis on carbon enhancement, influences CF and local forest users. The chapter shows that Community Forest User Groups implementing REDD+ emphasize conservation of forests through introducing stricter access and forest harvest regulations, with the result that poor and marginalized members are deprived of meeting their basic resource requirements. This chapter concludes that implementation of REDD+ through CF may result in the destabilization of customary CF management systems that integrate livelihood improvement and sustainable management of forest resources.