Gilmour, O’Brien Nurse
17 The Master Plan for the Forestry Sector, approved in 1989, provides a 25-
year policy and planning framework for the forestry sector, and it remains the main policy and planning document. The Master Plan gave the highest priority to
the community and private forestry programs, and some of the important elements are:
• All the accessible hill forests in Nepal should be handed over to user
groups not to the Panchayats to the extent that they are willing and capable of managing them;
• Priority of community forests is to supply forest products to those who
depend highly on them; •
Women and the poor should be involved in the management of community forests; and
• The role of forestry staff should be changed to that of extension service
provider and advisor. The forestry staff should be provided with reorientation training to deliver the services needed by Community Forest
User Groups.
The major recommendations of the Master Plan have been incorporated into the formulation of a new Forest Act 1993 and Forest Rules 1995.
Operational Guidelines to guide implementation of community forestry were introduced in 1995 and modified in 2001 and 2004.
5.4.2. Progress with Implementation
During the last 25 years of community forest implementation, about 1.2 million ha of forests or 25 per cent of existing national forests, mostly in the middle hills
region, have been handed over to more than 14,000 local community forest user groups CFUGs. About 1.6 million households 35 of the country are members
of these groups.
A study was conducted in 2004 among 1,788 community forest user groups and extrapolated countrywide. It indicated that 10.9 million cubic feet of timber,
338 million-kg of firewood, and 371 million kg of grasses were harvested and used by the users during the year. Grasses were consumed locally; timber and
firewood were consumed locally as well as sold outside the user groups. Box 2 gives additional information on the income that has been generated by Forest
User Groups in Nepal.
5.5. Philippines adapted from Pulhin et al. 2005
5.5.1. Regulatory Framework
Community-Based Forest Management CBFM is currently the Philippines’ major strategy for the sustainable development of the country’s forest resources
and social justice. It emerged as a major approach to the allocation of forests and forest lands to communities and indigenous peoples with the issuance of
Executive Order E.O. 263 in 1995 and the passage of the Indigenous People’s Rights Act IPRA in 1997. Many Timber License Agreements TLAs were
cancelled and licenses that expired were not renewed after the 1986 revolution and the subsequent amendment of the Philippine Constitution. As a result, there
are now only 13 TLAs remaining covering a total area of 543,939 ha of forest land. This represents a drastic departure from the earlier forest management
18 REGULATORY FRAMEWORKS FOR CF
approach, which placed 8-10 million ha of forest land – around one-third of the country’s total land area of 30 million ha – under the control of the social elite,
particularly the relatively few timber license operators Pulhin and Pulhin, 2003. E.O. 263 and its implementing rules and regulations stipulate the basic policy
objectives that CBFM intends to pursue. These are: 1 to protect and advance the right of the Filipino people to a healthy environment; 2 improve the socio-
economic conditions through the promotion of social justice and equitable access to, and sustainable development of, forest land resources; and 3 respect the
rights of indigenous peoples to their ancestral domains by taking into account their customs, traditions and beliefs in the formulation of laws and policies.
To achieve these objectives, the CBFM Program CBFMP was established through DENR Administrative Order No. 96-29 to integrate and unify all the people-
oriented programs of the government. Despite the above-cited policies and programs, there is as yet no single
legislated policy that provides a stable legal framework to guide the smooth implementation of the CBFM Program. This has created a highly uncertain policy
environment that continues to derail CBFM implementation. In particular, DENR’s vacillation on the issuance of Resource Use Permit RUP to participating People’s
Organisations as demonstrated in a series of national suspensionscancellations of RUPs by three DENR Secretaries has greatly affected CBFM operations at
the field level, upsetting the major source of livelihood of the participating communities. The DENR is developing legislation for the proposed Sustainable
Forest Management Act, which incorporates CBFM as the core management approach in its effort to create a more stable forest policy environment.
5.5.2. Progress with Implementation
