ABSTRACT
What rights are transferred to local communities and how secure are they in the existing legal system and regulatory practice central to the functioning of community forestry? This chapter describes the legal provisions of tenure, followed by an examination of how and to what extent these provisions are translated into the everyday practice of forest resource use and management in Nepal's community forestry. While legislative arrangements strongly favor community rights over forests, regulatory instruments and institutional practices weaken them. The regulatory practice for operationalizing forest tenure includes approval of the group constitution, periodic forest management plans, and forest product harvesting and sale. Tenure in practice within these domains fundamentally shapes the actual rights enjoyed by various households for subsistence and commercial use. This chapter concludes that relaxing regulatory requirements in response to shifting forest value and emergent market opportunities, as well as enhancing the capacities of forest communities, could strengthen resource tenure in Nepal's community forestry.
