1. Project Site

　Narchyang Village, Myagdi District and Salija Village, Parbat District, Nepal (approximately 40 kilometers northwest of Pokhara）

2. Outline of the Project

The objectives of the project are to improve people's livelihood and to activate local communities in Myagdi District and Parbat District in the western part of Nepal by conserving the natural environments. The plan for FY2006 is to increase the production capacity of the nursery that was constructed as part of the activities of the last financial year (FY2005) and start full-scale planting in the reforestation lots and to proceed with the income generation activities by constructing facilities to produce paper and fabric.
During the last fiscal year, the long term plan (for 10 years) and the three-year plan for the Project for Establishment of Community Forests in Mountain Villages of Nepal were formulated with participation of villagers. Nurseries were constructed and the management and operations of the nurseries started. Training for nursery managers and forest committee members was conducted as well.
In the current fiscal year, the second year of the above-mentioned plans, the nurseries will be expanded to increase the capacity of seedling production and full-scale reforestation operations will start. In addition, we will proceed with the plan for improving the incomes of the villagers by utilizing local forest resources in order to improve living standards of villagers and develop local communities. For the income improvement plan, facilities to process lokta and nettle that grow naturally and abundantly in the project sites will be constructed and required equipment and materials will be provided. A trail between the forest and the settlement will also be constructed or upgraded in each village in order to transport forest resources more efficiently.
The two local staff of the Nepal office will be employed this fiscal year as well. In addition, the staff member of the Japan office and a Japanese expert will be sent to Nepal in order to consistently manage the process of the project from the start, through the construction of facilities and to the evaluation.
By implementing the present project on the basis of the project implemented last year, it will be possible to continue the employment of the nursery managers and local staff that were training last year. It will also be possible to produce seedlings during the dry season as planned and to complete the construction of processing facilities and trails.

3. History of the project

(1) Aiming for establishment of community forests

Under the Project for Establishment of Community Forests in Mountain Villages of Nepal that started in the last fiscal year (FY 2005) funded by Ministry of Foreign Affairs (NGO grant aid), the long term plan (for 10 years) and the three-year plan on seedling production and reforestation were formulated with participation of villagers and nurseries were constructed with the aim to establish community forests that local people can use in Salija Village of Parbat District and Narchyang Village of Myagdi District. Basic training on the management and operation of nurseries was conducted for nursery managers.
Salija Village belongs to Salija VDC（Village Development Committee）in Parbat District with a population of 3,325 (as of 2001). It is located at the altitude of 1,600-3000 meters (the average is 2,200 meters). Narchyang Village belongs to Narchyang VDC in Myagdi District with a population of 1,896 (as of 2001). There are two settlements, the upper one and the lower one in Narchyang Village. The upper sub-village is located 2,200 meters above sea level and the lower one 1,250 meters.
　"Community forests" are not only for timber production. They also provide various goods and functions that are important for the livelihood of the inhabitants such as fuel woods, fodder, food, medicines and soil conservation function. In this sense, a community forest is one of the most important bases of the livelihood of local population. The life of the residents of mountain villages in Nepal and the Himalayas is still highly dependant on forests. Originally, forests have served as places for production of timber and other materials as well as clearing underbush and collecting fallen leaves to make manure. Forests have also been the sources of drinking and irrigation water. Establishing “community forests” that enable development of forest resources without harming the public welfare function will make it possible to achieve harmony between natural environments and people’s life and sustainable co-existence of forests and people.

(2) Ten-Year Plan (long-term plan)

The ten-year plan (the long-term plan) is as follows:
[Area to be afforested and number of seedlings produced] The total area of land plots to be afforested in and around Narchyang Village is 47 hectares. The number of seedlings required to plant on this area is 120,000. On the other hand, the area to be afforested in and around Salija Village is 48 hectares in total. The required number of seedlings is 130,000.
Therefore, the total area to be afforested under the project is 95 hectares and the number of required seedlings in total is 250,000 for the duration of 10 years. It is planed to plant 64,000 seedlings during the first three years (16,000 for the first year, 21,000 for the second year and 27,000 for the third year) and 27,000 annually for the following seven years.
Accordingly, the nurseries constructed last year will be expanded and maintained this and the next fiscal years and operated for at least ten years to provide seedlings for the total area of 95 hectares.
[Objectives] The following are the objectives of the project:
- prevent natural disasters including landslides and soil erosion in rainy season by regenerating forests;
- secure water sources through reforestation;
- produce fodder, fuel woods and timber that are necessary for the life of the residents;
- reduce the time that people spend on collecting fodder and fuel woods by regenerating forests near settlements;
- increase incomes of the residents by growing, harvesting, processing and selling trees appropriate for business purpose;
- improve the livelihood of the population by maintaining living environments; and
- activate communities concerned.

(3) Three-Year Plan

The following plan will be implemented during the first three years of the project duration.
[Area to be afforested and number of seedlings produced] The total area of the land to be afforested in Narchyang Village is 20 hectares. In Salija Village, it is 23 hectares. During the first three years of the project, 64,000 seedlings will be planted on the area of approximately 24 hectares of the total of 43 hectares. In order to supply the required seedlings, the nurseries will be expanded and maintained in phases. In addition, stonewall of a total length of 2,100 meters will be constructed to protect seedlings from feeding damages.
[Objectives] The following are the objectives for the first three years of the project:
- start afforestation and proceed with the activities according to the plan;
- train and empower the residents so that they can manage and utilize the forests by themselves;
- improve living conditions of the residents by utilizing forest resources effectively;
- increase the incomes of the residents by collecting, processing and selling forest resources including lokta (for paper) and nettle (for fabric); and
- raise the awareness of the residents and capacity of the communities by promoting people’s participation.

4. Plan for the current fiscal year

The plan for the current fiscal year is to proceed to the second stage of the project: On the basis of the achievement during the last year, the first stage of the project, production capacity of seedlings will be increased, planting will be started in full scale and activities to improve incomes of the residents through utilization of forest resources will be carried out.
This project is formulated in such a way that a series of plans will realize expected effects by proceeding with clearly-designed stages. It is therefore important to shift to the second stage without delay while the achievement during the first stage keeps impact. By steadily proceeding with the planned stages, it will be possible to gradually promote self-reliance of the residents and open up the way for sustainable forest conservation and community activation.
By starting this year’s project immediately, it will be possible to secure required workforce including nursery managers and local staff simply by extending the contracts with those who were trained last year. Their skills will improve as well. In addition, it will also be possible to complete expansion of the nurseries and construction of other facilities during the dry season. (Construction works will be difficult in the rainy season.)　More importantly, it is necessary to raise sufficient quantity of seedlings during the dry season. Otherwise, it will be impossible to implement full-scale planting activities as soon as the rainy reason starts. It is absolutely necessary to avoid any delays whatsoever.

(1) Expansion of nurseries (improvement of seedling production capacities) and start of full-scale afforestation

In this project, with the objective of establishing community forests, we will improve capacities of seedling production that started last year and start full-scale planting of produced seedlings. Tree planting will be conducted by the local people with the leadership of the forest committees that were already organized in respectively project villages. Fencing walls will be constructed after planting to protect seedlings from feeding damages.
According to the concept of starting small, production capacities of the nurseries constructed last fiscal year were just about 16,000. However, distribution of seedlings went well and the demand for them remains strong. It is therefore indispensable to expand the nurseries and meet the demand as soon as possible in order to achieve the initial goal of establishing community forests. The investment will be not excessive.
To be more precise, in order to proceed with the three-year plan and to establish the foundation for the ten-year plan that will follow, it is necessary to increase the annual seedling production capacity of the nurseries to about 21,000 during the second phase, i.e. this fiscal year. Taking into account the project performance of the last fiscal year, no problem is foreseen regarding the maintenance and management of a facility of this size.
Regarding the expansion and maintenance of the nurseries, basic management training was given to concerned staff during the first phase. Upgrading and repair work of facilities are planned for the second phase. In establishing nurseries, step-by-step expansion approach that will enable steady production and quality improvement is more appropriate than building a big one at the beginning. It will also facilitate the shift to self-reliant management by the residents.
We have a plan to expand and upgrade the existing nurseries and utilize them as bases of seedling supply to the surrounding villages through the ten-year duration of the project. Thus, the nurseries will contribute to forest conservation of the whole region. The seedlings will be sold at one to ten rupees each, depending on the species. The improvement of nursery management capacity will be pursed gradually. The nurseries have been constructed on communal land and the ownership of the land is with respective villages.

(2) Meetings and training of nursery managers and other concerned staff

Nursery managers and forest committee members will take responsibilities of management and operation of the nurseries. They were given basic training on various aspects of nursery management including purchase of seeds, care of seedlings and bookkeeping. However, they have not been trained in tree planting and sustainable use of forests. Therefore, in order to give them general knowledge of consistent forest management, workshops and in-field training on identifying appropriate land for afforestation, planting of seedlings, logging, management and utilization of forests and other concerned themes are planned to be held during this year.
It is also expected that the training will enable nursery managers and forest committee members to instruct and lead other local people on principles and methods for forest conservation and thereby make it possible for the local community to understand from the very beginning of the afforestation activities that the tree planting is not a kind of employment but activities to improve the village and lives of their own. Thus, they will eventually be able to conserve existing forests and utilize them systematically under certain rules of respective communities.
In addition, these activities are expected to contribute to giving spill-over effects of nursery operations on surrounding areas of the project villages.
After the meetings and training courses, the participants of meetings and training courses will be requested to fill questionnaires. We will confirm and evaluate the achievement by analyzing the questionnaires.

(3) Plan to increase the incomes of local people

In project villages, there are practically no opportunities for getting cash income. The local people are therefore extremely poor and improvement of people’s incomes is tremendously important issue for the development of local communities. On the other hand, in order to conserve and manage regenerated forests and the resources there properly, it is necessary to develop means of livelihood other than exploiting forest resources by selling fuel woods and timber and thereby establish a lifestyle that is not excessively dependent on natural resources. In short, improvement of incomes of local people is a vital issue for the success of forest conservation project.

■ Construction of facilities to process lokta and nettle

In Salija area, we plan to construct facilities and provide necessary equipment for processing lokta and nettle that are naturally grown in the area. Paper can be made from lokta and fabric from nettle. These are marketable. Both lokta and nettle are available abundantly in wide areas in the project site, 50 and 24 hectares respectively. Facilities for lokta processing will be constructed in the sixth block of Salija VDC (Salija Village) and those for nettle will be constructed in the seventh block (Patalkharka Village). These facilities will be owned by respective villages.
There are a few more than ten villagers who have already been trained in processing of lokta and nettle and mastered the skills. It will therefore be possible to establish the production system by having them train others as soon as the facilities become available. It is only infrastructure that are lacking at present.
The products that are half-finished materials for paper and fabric can be sold to factories in cities such as Pokhara and Bhaktapur where the demands for paper and fabric have been strong. In addition, no costs are required to collect the materials. Therefore, the investment for the construction of facilities will not be excessive. During this fiscal year, we will establish the basis for developing the venture into a local industry to utilize forest resources in the future.

■ Training for development of a local special product: production of alpine rose juice

In Dunche Village of Rasuwa District, there is small factory of alpine rose juice. The juice is made from the flowers of alpine rose and sold at Rs. 70 per bottle.
Since alpine rose is grown naturally and abundant in the area of the project, it seems to be promising to develop a local industry with it by introducing the technology for juice production to the project site. The products can be sold to tourist lodges in towns such as Ghorepani as a local specialty and increase incomes of local people. It will be a means of effective utilization of forest resources and utilization and farther development of progressive technology that is already available in Nepal.
During this fiscal year, training of technicians will be conducted in order to establish foundation for the alpine rose juice project. Three persons from the project will be sent to the factory in Dunche Village to have them master the skills for juice production.

(4) Upgrading of the village trail

In the area of Narchyang Village, there is a trail between the settlement and forests that also connects the upper and the lower sub-villages of about five kilometers, but the condition of this trail is appalling. Since the villagers transport forest resources such as fuel woods, fodder for livestock and timber by carrying them by themselves, the poor trail impose great difficulties on them. It is also hard work to walk to the forests to take the livestock for feeding.
The improvement of the trail by paving the trail with pebbles will make it much easier for the villagers to transport forest resources and move livestock between the settlement and forests. It will particularly be beneficial for women and children. By making the transport of forest resources easier, it will be possible to get timber from relatively far forests. The upgrading of the trail will thus contribute to conservation of forests near the settlements. Making the transport of forest resources easier will also be effective for development of local industry for the purpose of improving people’s incomes.
Under the present condition of the trail, it is about 30 kilograms of forest resources at most that a villager can carry from the forest. It is estimated however that the load for one trip will increase to 40 kilograms by paving the trail.

(5) Organization for implementation and management of the project

A staff member of the IHC head office will assume the role of the project manager. Two local staff will be employed. The project manager and an expert will be sent to Nepal to manage the project process from the launch through construction of facilities and to the evaluation as well as the coordination of operations and technical consultation.
The division of responsibilities among the head office staff, local staff and expert sent from Japan is as follows:
[Staff member of the head office] will be responsible for the management of implementation and operations as the project manager. He will also be responsible for surveying natural environments including geography, geology, soil, weather, vegetation and ecological system, management of environment, prevention of natural disasters, identification of plots for tree planting, technical consultation on natural environment management, technical consultation of participatory development methods, and reporting and public relations through internet and other medias.
[Local staff] [A] Lil Pun will be responsible for administration and accounting. He will also assist the project manager.
[B] Chitra Pun will be responsible for field operations, monitoring and correspondence between the fields and the offices.

(6) Expected number of beneficiaries of the project

5. Conclusion

The project activities for this year are in accordance with the three-year plan and supposed to establish the basis for the activities of the ten-year plan that will follow.
The regenerated forests established as a result of seedling production and reforestation will enable the residents of the project villages to get forest resources including fodder, fuel woods and timber near the settlements and improve their livelihood, by shortening the time to spend on collecting them. In addition, the sources of drinking water for the local people will be secured and natural disasters including landslides and soil erosion during rainy seasons. On the other hand, logging in the small remaining natural forests of rare species will no longer be necessary and therefore will lead to protection of valuable ecological system.
On the other hand, by processing and selling forest resources including lokta and nettle, it will be possible to increase incomes of the residents. The improvement of people’s livelihood will greatly contribute to forest conservation.
The project will be implemented with full participation of the local people, which will not only increase their awareness in conservation of natural environment but also improve the capacity of the communities.
As was explained above, this project will organically combine environmental conservation, forest utilization and rural development and promote conservation and utilization of forests simultaneously. It will subsequently harmonize natural environment and local community. Sustainable development of local community is possible only where environmental conservation and social development are simultaneously pursued.