Bir Bahadur Khanal Chhetri

Community users’ and experts’ perspective on community forestry in Nepal: a SWOT–AHP analysis

Nepal is a pioneer country in adopting community forestry (CF) which has been a success story in the mid-hills. In recent years, CF is shifting priorities from supplying forest products to maximizing the economic benefits of economically productive forests, while issues such as elite dominancy and exclusion are still prominent. These changes and issues necessitate examining forestry efforts from experts’ and users’ perspectives in order to further strengthen CF program. The purpose of this study was to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) factors regarding CF from experts’ and community users’ perspectives by using analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The results suggest that management and conservation of forest resources, impracticality of forest policy, increased scope of resource conservation and management, and forest fire were the most important SWOT factors for users, whereas basic needs fulfillment, unaddressed equity issues, increased scope of resource conservation and management, and changing political scenario of the country were the most important SWOT factors for experts. Overall, strengths and opportunities outweigh weaknesses and threats for both groups; however, both users and experts suggest addressing weaknesses and threats. Possible implications from the results are discussed further in this paper.