ABSTRACT
Nepal's community forestry has progressed through contestation and negotiation of power, knowledge, and access to benefits that flow from forest management. Its success and failure in unfolding socio-environmental dynamics depend largely on the local political economy around these material and symbolic resources. This chapter explores the political-economic roots underpinning community forestry's progress and stagnation, drawing on five years of the action research project “Enhancing Livelihoods from Improved Forest Management in Nepal” in the Kavrepalanchowk and Sindhupalchowk Districts. Six key issues of political economy that characterize the interaction among actors as they negotiate power, knowledge, and resources around community forestry have been identified: (a) policy manipulation in practice, (b) informal nexus in timber trade, (c) organizational dysfunction concerning commercialization, (d) the decline in the facilitative system, (e) unclear sub-regional policy direction, and (f) weak civic voice and political articulation. Through this, the chapter links forest restoration and livelihood outcomes to the combined effect of problematic power relations, knowledge interfaces, and resource transactions, highlighting the need for a nuanced understanding of local political economy, more contextually responsive policy action, and facilitative support for institutional transformation that resonates with the changing context.
