UN-REDD Programme 146d ago

In this conversation, Thakur Prasad Bhandari, Chairperson of the Federation of Community Forestry Users Nepal (FECOFUN), reflects on his 25+ year journey in Nepal’s community forestry movement and unpacks why community-managed forests are the backbone of Nepal’s conservation success. He shares concrete figures on Nepal’s 23,000+ community forest user groups, 3.2 million households, 16.2 million users, and 2.4 million hectares under community management, and explains how forest cover expanded from 29% to 46%. The conversation explores community enterprises, benefit-sharing rules, carbon finance and REDD+, why FECOFUN insists that at least 80% of carbon revenues must reach communities, and the major policy challenges facing community forestry today—including triple taxation, blocked enterprises, operational plan backlogs, and human–wildlife conflict.