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To meet the stipulated objectives, six primary and six supportive programs were developed. It is important to note that forest
resource information and management planning is one of the supportive programs of the MFPS (1989). The program aims to
generate, update and use forest statistics and information for decision support system.
1.4.1.2 Revised Forestry Sector Policy 2000
This policy provides explicit options for managing the forests of the Terai, Churia and Inner Terai regions of the country. The
main objective of the policy is to address the need of sustainable management of the forests of the Terai. The policy
recommends the implementation of collaborative forest management model in the Terai region. However, the policy has not
yet been translated into legal instruments.
1.4.1.3 Other Policies
GoN has formulated a number of well-defined policies related to forestry sector. These are as follows:
Leasehold Forestry Policy, 2002
Nepal Biodiversity Strategy, 2002
National Wetland Policy, 2003
Herbs and NTFP Development Policy, 2004
Terai Arc Landscape Strategy 2004-2014
Sacred Himalayan Landscape Strategy 2006-2016
Gender and Social Inclusion Strategy in the Forestry Sector 2004- 2019
1.4.1.4 Forestry related international policies
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD) has become the key policy
instrument in mitigating climate change when the 13th Conference of Parties (COP) of United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) approved the mechanism in December 2007.
The REDD instrument will be useful, particularly to the developing nations like Nepal, when the mechanism will provide
incentives to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation. Nepal is one of the REDD countries within Carbon
Partnership Facility (CPF) program of the World Bank. Ministry of Forests and Soil conservation (MFSC) is taking the lead
role to implement REDD related activities in Nepal. As a result, the Ministry has already submitted Nepal’s Readiness
Preparation Proposal (R-PP, 2010-2013) to the World Bank. To achieve this vision of REDD, the R-PP will provide Nepal’s
roadmap for developing and implementing the REDD strategy, based on certain underlying principles agreed by forest sector
stakeholders. The success of REDD mechanism depends up on availability of reliable data of forest cover and biomass
changes in different scale, extent and time period.
Moreover, Nepal is one of the member countries of several forestry related international conventions and agreements. It is
mandatory to the member countries to report national level forestry data to the international conventions and agreements.
1.4.2 Legal instruments
1.4.2.1 Interim Constitution
The Interim Constitution of Nepal is the main legal and policy framework. The constitution has stipulated various directive
principles and policies. Article 35 (4) of the constitution states to the policy of mobilizing the nation’s natural resources and
heritage in a useful and profitable manner for national welfare.
Similarly, Article 35(5) proclaims: ‘the state shall give priority to the protection of the environment and also to the
prevention of its further damage due to physical development activities by increasing the awareness of the general public
about environmental cleanliness, and the state shall also make arrangements for the special protection of rare wildlife, forests
and vegetation.
1.4.2.2 Forest Act 1993 and Regulation 1995
The Forest Act (1993) and Regulations (1995) are the legal instruments to translate the policy vision into practice. Forest Act
categorizes national and private forests on the basis of ownership. National forest is further divided into five sub-categories
on the basis of management regimes.
1. government managed forests
2. community forests
3. protected forests
4. leasehold forests and
5. religious forests
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