Where to collect? Community forest management and disadvantaged households in Nepal

Rural households in Nepal rely heavily on forest products such as fuelwood, leaf fodder and grass to meet daily needs for fuel and livestock feed. Increasingly, these households are living in communities where local forest areas are governed by user groups. In 1993, the Nepali government passed the Forest Act, which allowed the transfer of formal use rights and management responsibility for specific forests to ‘Forest User Groups’ (FUGs) composed of traditional users of forests. The number of community forests managed by FUGs expanded dramatic - ally over the next decade, and has continued to grow.