A background paper presented in a regional workshop
“Strengthening CF Networks and Federations in Asia”
(jointly organized by GACF, FECOFUN and RECOFTC and funded by RRI)
March 25-29, 2010
Bangkok, Thailand
Community Forestry Networks and Federations in Asia
and Their Role in Democratizing Forest Governance
Ganga Ram Dahal, PhD
Hemant Ojha, PhD
Sandesh Silpakar
Global Alliance of Community Forestry (GACF)
Federation of Community Forestry Users, Nepal (FECOFUN)
Kathmandu, Nepal
www.gacfonline.com, www.fecofun.org
info@gacfonline.com
1
Community Forestry Networks and Federations in Asia and Their Role in Democratizing Forest
Governance
Ganga Ram Dahal PhD
1
. Hemant Ojha PhD
2
. and Sandesh Silpakar
3
1. Introduction
Since the 1990s, there has been an increasing interest, worldwide, in the potential of community
forestry systems and related models of local forest management to contribute to efficient service
provision, environmental stability, and poverty reduction. This trend is reflected in the policy shifts in
around sixty countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America that have supported some degree of devolution
of forest management to a diverse range of stakeholders: local governments and line agencies;
grassroots forest user groups; individual households, and even NGOs. Common to all of these efforts is
a widespread recognition of the potential gains for poverty alleviation and sustainable forest
management resulting from broad-scale participation of multiple stakeholders across different levels of
government and civil society institutions. These gains include, for example, a reduction in forest-related
conflicts and illegal logging, stabilization of forest cover, and livelihood security for marginalized forest-
dependent groups for whom forests provide a safety net during times of hardship (Dupar and Badenoch,
2002). Besides these outcomes, this policy change is also linked to wider demands for democratization
and active civic engagement