FECOFUN welcomes parliamentary subcommittee's recommendations

Kathmandu - The Federation of Community Forest Users' Nepal (FECOFUN) has welcomed the recommendations of the parliamentary subcommittee under the Public Accounts Committee to scrap the Scientific Forest Management Guidelines, 2071. The Guidelines was against rights of community forest, according to a statement issued by the FECOFUN on Saturday.

The FECOFUN demanded action against those behind the Guidelines. It also demanded correction in the Guidelines as they would curtail legal and autonomous rights of community forests and consumers groups. "Conservation of Chure forest area and Tarai Madhes forests cannot take place without participation of forest consumers groups along with their rights," said FECOFUN President Bharati Pathak in the statement.

Stating that laws have permitted consumers groups to determine and sell forest resources without restriction, it demanded that the government allow collection, sale and supply of forest resources. Claiming that tendency of worsening community forest has a serious impact on the autonomy on the concept of community forest, the FECOFUN concluded that it is not appropriate to interfere with autonomy of community forest in the name of scientific forest management.