ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the theory and practice of community forestry and the various ways that it connects to and contradicts the idea of sustainable development in rural Nepal. Community forestry is often upheld as one of the leading environment and development programs in the Global South. Community forestry innovations have become vulnerable to state and market interests and encroachments, increasingly undermining the possibility of achieving social and ecological sustainability in Nepal’s forest sector in the moment. The donor-funded development projects introduced community-based forest governance and management practices by blending together indigenous knowledge systems and forestry practices with the discourses of participatory development and environmental sustainability. The chapter presents a history of community forestry, a description of the origins of community forestry as a sustainable development initiative in Nepal, and evolving trends. Community forestry has mobilized the concept of sustainability to highlight the importance of fulfilling everyday subsistence requirements of the people and also of satisfying market demands for income generation.
