South Asia Institute of Advanced Studies and Forest Action Nepal jointly organized a policy dialogue meeting entitled “Revisiting Forest Bill for better understanding and communication” on 30 June 2019. The major objective of the event was to have a critical discussion on the content and the process of current “Forest Bill”. About 40 participants from various forest related organizations including government officials, civic groups, experts on forest and natural resource management, activists, practitioner, private sector representatives and media persons were present in the event. The program was facilitated by the Dr. Netra Timisina, chairperson of SIAS and convened by Dr. Dil B Khatri, Executive Director of SIAS, Dr. Dinesh Paudel, an assistant professor in Sustainable Development at Appalachian State University, Dr. Mani Ram Banjade, Planning and Governance Specialist and Dr. Naya Sharma Paudel, Environmental Governance Specialist of Forest Action Nepal. The meeting drew the collective understanding that the current forest bill being tabled in the Parliament is regressive in comparison to the Forest Act 1993 concerning local autonomy and community rights. Not enough public deliberation was done during the process of making the Bill thus confining the tenure rights of the community and channeling the power of control to the bureaucratic system. The meeting came up with the recommendation to revisit the Bill to secure local autonomy and strengthen community based forest management.
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