Keywords
power
women
forest
Categories
How to Cite
Abstract
Forests are more than just trees; they are lifelines. For millions in Nepal, especially women, community forests provide food, fuel, medicine, and essential livelihood opportunities. However, critical questions remain: who decides how these forests are managed, and who truly benefits from them. This study examines women’s participation, access to benefits, and decision-making power within Nepal’s community forestry system. Drawing on qualitative data collected from 19 Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs) across four provinces, including mixed-gender and women-only groups, we conducted participatory workshops, group discussions, and community-level engagements to capture women’s lived experiences beyond formal records. Our findings reveal a persistent gender gap between women’s labor contributions and their access to authority and economic benefits.
References
Acharya, M., & Bennett, L. (1982). Women's Status in Nepal: A Summary of Findings and Implications. Washington, DC: Agency for International Development, Office of Women in Development.
Acharya, H. (1992). Participation of women in the management of community forests in Gorkha, Nepal. Report to the Nepal Field Office of Save the Children Federation, USA, in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Adhikari, B., Di Falco, S., Lovett, J.C., (2004). Household characteristics and forest dependency: evidence from common property forest management in Nepal. Ecol. Econ. 48 (2), 245–257. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2003.08.008.
Agarwal, B. (2001b). The hidden side of group behavior: A gender analysis of community forestry groups. QEH working paper QEHWPS76. Department of International Development, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Agarwal, B. (2009). Rule-making in community forestry institutions: The difference women make. Ecol. Econ. 68(8–9): 2296–2308.
Agarwal, B. (2000). Conceptualizing environmental collective action: why gender matters. Camb. J. Econ. 24, 283–310.
Agarwal, B. (2007). Gender inequality, cooperation, and environmental sustainability. In: Baland, J., Bardhan, P., Bowles, S. (Eds.), Inequality, Cooperation and Environmental Sustainability. Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp. 274–313.
Agarwal, B. (2009a). Gender and forest conservation: the impact of women’s participation in community forest governance. Ecol. Econ. 68 (11), 2785–2799. Agarwal, B., 2009b. Rule-making in community forestry institutions: the difference women make. Ecol. Econ. 68 (8–9), 2296–2308.
Agarwal, B. (2010a). Does women’s proportional strength affect their participation? Governing local forests in South Asia. World Dev. 38 (1), 98–112.
Agarwal, B. (2010b). Gender and Green Governance: the Political Economy of Women’s Presence within and beyond Community Forestry. Oxford University Press. Agrawal, A., 2001. Common property institutions and sustainable resource governance. World Dev. 29 (10), 1649–1672.
Bocci, C., & Mishra, K. (2021). Forest power: The impact of community forest management on female empowerment. Ecological Economics, 187, 107105.
Chattopadhyay, R., & Duflo, E. (2004). Women as policy makers: Evidence from a randomized policy experiment in India. Econometrica, 72(5), 1409–1443.
Charmakar, S, Oli, BN, Joshi, NR, et al., 2021. Forest carbon storage and species richness in FSC-certified and non-certified community forests in Nepal. Small-scale Forestry doi:10.1007/s11842-020-09464-3.
Colfer, C. J. P., & Minarchek, R. D. (2012). Forest research and gender: a review of available methods for promoting equity. Forests, Trees and Livelihoods, 21(4), 221–240.
.
DFRS (2015). State of Nepal's Forests. Forest Resource Assessment (FRA) Nepal, Department of Forest Research and Survey (DFRS). Kathmandu, Nepal.
Dev, O. P., Yadav, N. P., Springate-Baginski, O., & Soussan, J. (2003). Impacts of community forestry on livelihoods in Nepal's middle hills. Journal of Forest and Livelihood, 3(1), 64-77.
DFRS (2007) State of Nepal’s forests. Department of Forest Research and Survey, Kathmandu, Nepal
Gilmour, D. (2016). Forty years of community-based forestry: A review of its extent and effectiveness. FAO forestry paper, (176).
GON, National Planning Commission. Nepal’s Sustainable Development Goals Progress Assessment Report 2016–2019; Government of Nepal, National Planning Commission: Kathmandu, Nepal, 2020.
HMGN (1993a). Forest Act, 1993. His Majesty’s Government of Nepal (HMGN)/USAID, Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation, Forestry Development Project. HMGN, 1993b. Forest Regulation, 1995. His Majesty’s Government of Nepal (HMGN)/USAID, Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation, Forestry Development Project.
HMGN (1995). Forest Rules 2051, Ministry of Law and Justice, His Majesty’s Government of Nepal. HMGN, 2000, Forest Sector Policy 2000, Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, Kathmandu, Nepal.
ICIMOD. (1988). Women in mountain development. Report of the international workshop on women, development and mountain resources: Approaches to internalising gender perspectives. Kathmandu, Nepal: International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development.
HMG (1999). Nepal gazette Part 2:48(69), Kathmandu, Nepal
HMG, ((1995). The Forest Act 1993 and the Forest Regulations 1995, Law Books Management Board, FDP/USAID/HMGN, Kathmandu
IDEA. Quotas. (2022). Available online: https://www.idea.int/data-tools/data/gender-quotas/quotas (accessed on 15 January 2022)
Jodha, N. S. (1990). Rural common property resources: contributions and crisis. Economic and Political Weekly, A65-A78.
Khadka M. (2009). Why Does Exclusion Continue in Nepal’s Community Forestry? [PhD dissertation]. The Hague, Netherlands: International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University.
Khadka, M., & Verma, R. (2012). Gender and biodiversity management in the Greater Himalayas: towards equitable mountain development. International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).
Leone, M. (2019). Women as decision makers in community forest management: evidence from Nepal. J. Dev. Econ. 138, 180–191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jdeveco.2019.01.002.
Manfre, C., & Rubin, D. (2012). Integrating gender into forestry research: A guide for CIFOR scientists and programme administrators. Cifor.
Maraseni, TN, Bhattarai, N, Karky, BS, et al., 2019. An assessment of governance quality for community-based forest management systems in Asia: prioritization of governance indicators at various scales. Land Use Policy 81, 750–761. doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.11.044.
Maraseni, T., Neupane, P., Lopez-Casero, F, Cadman, T (2014). An assessment of the impacts of the REDD+ pilot project on community forest user groups (CFUGs) and their community forests in Nepal. J. Environ. Manage. 136, 37–46. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2014.01.011.
Maraseni, TN, Poudyal, BH, Rana, E, et al., 2020. Mapping national REDD+ initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region. J. Environ. Manage. 269, 110763. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.110763.
MFSC. (1989).) Master Plan for the Forestry Sector, Nepal; Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, His Majesty’s Government of Nepal: Kathmandu, Nepal.
MFSC (2007). Forestry Sector Gender and Social Inclusion Strategy. Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation, Kathmandu, Nepal.
Ministry of Environment (2010). National Adaptation Program of Actions to Climate Change, Nepal.
Khadka, M., & Verma, R. (2012). Gender and biodiversity management in the Greater Himalayas: towards equitable mountain development. International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).
Nurse, M., & Malla, Y. (2006). Advances in community forestry in Asia. Capitalization and sharing of experiences on the interaction between forest policies and land use patterns in Asia, 2, 25–31.
Pokharel, B. K., & H. Ojha. (2005). Community forestry in Nepal: A platform for public deliberations or technocratic hegemony? Paper presented at the XXII IUFRO World Congress, 8–13 August, Brisbane, Australia.
Resurrección, B. P., Bee, B. A., Dankelman, I., Park, C. M. Y., Haldar, M., & McMullen, C. P. (2019). Gender-transformative climate change adaptation: advancing social equity. Paper commissioned by the Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA).
Resurrección, BP, Elmhirst, R. (2012). Gender and Natural Resource Management: Livelihoods. Mobility and Interventions, Routledge.
Sapkota, P., Keenan, R. J., Paschen, J. A., & Ojha, H. R. (2016). Social production of vulnerability to climate change in Nepal's rural middle hills. Journal of Rural Studies, 48, 53–64.
Shrestha UB, Shrestha BB, Shrestha S (2010). Biodiversity conservation in community forests of Nepal: Rhetoric and reality. IJBC 2:98–104. https://doi.org/10.5897/IJBC.9000016
Wagle, R., Pillay, S., & Wright, W. (2017). Examining Nepalese forestry governance from gender perspectives. International Journal of Public Administration, 40(3), 205–225.
This research was funded by Renewable World Nepal. The authors express their sincere gratitude to Thakur Thapa, Manoj Prasad Ojha, Aarju Karki, Bhawana Dhungana, and the staff of the Kathmandu Office for their valuable support and cooperation throughout the study. We would also like to sincerely thank Mr. Manoj Ayer, Mr. Hari Bhadra Acharya, Mr. Manoj Ojha, and Mr. Binaya Jha for their supervision and support during the fieldwork. We are also deeply grateful to Warden Chandra Shekher Chaudhary and all the staff of SPNP, including the army personnel, for consistently ensuring our safety and well-being. Finally, we extend our heartfelt thanks to the entire KAFCOL family for their continued support.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2026 KC Milan, Bhawana Basyal, Medani P. Bhandari