Field Visit to Chaubas

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Name of the Research Project: “Challenges to Community Forestry in the Post-Rights Devolution Era in Nepal for the IFPRI/PIM Project”

A meeting was held within the premises of the Chaubas Community Sawmill located at Bhumblu rural municipality of the Kavrepalanchowk district of Nepal on December 11, 2018. The meeting was aimed at gaining a better understanding about the enterprise’s management modality and composition with specific focus on the challenges that the enterprise and the community forest user groups face in the post-rights tenure devolution era in Nepal. Four community forest user groups (CFUGs) have partnered to establish this sawmill and have currently handed its operation to a private entity. They have an agreement whereby the private entity pays them a sum of money on a yearly basis to use the facility. All the logs that are sawn at this sawmill come from the surrounding community forests.

The meeting was attended by a total of 10 individuals including the Chairperson of one of the CFUGs i.e. Fagarkhola CFUG, and Dr. Steven Lawry, the Principal Scientist (Equal Opportunities, Gender, Justice and Tenure) from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). Discussions were guided by the following:

  • History of the CFUGs
  • History of the Sawmill
  • Details about the sawmill: composition of the management committee (men vs. women, caste division, ethnicity, etc.), how they are selected, how many are currently employed at the sawmill, what percentage of CFUG members’ income is constituted by income made from working at the sawmill, and scales of operation.
  • Occurrence of any conflict(s) within the CFUGs and/or the management committee of the sawmill. If any, why was there a conflict, and how was it resolved (if it was resolved)?
  • In the context of out-migration of the youth, mostly the men, how has it affected the functioning of the sawmill (if it has had any effect at all)?
  • How are the benefits shared amongst the CFUG members? Also, how are the timber logs distributed amongst its members?

The meeting lasted for nearly two hours.