Boosting tree crop opportunities
Shaping the Nepalese Forest Act to allow agroforestry fruit and horticultural products to be sold by community forest enterprises.
A Nepalese farmer examines a native fruit tree (Photo: Duncan Macqueen, IIED)
The Federation of Community Forestry Users Nepal (FECOFUN) unites just over 23,000 community forest user groups (CFUGs) representing 14 million people.
It is the lead forest and farm producer organisation in Nepal, responsible for government engagement to shape enabling policy and legal changes related to community forests, agroforestry, enterprises and benefit-sharing mechanisms. This includes advocating for maximising carbon finance to be equitably distributed to CFUGs.
Forest and Farm Facility activities
With support from the Forest and Farm Facility (FFF), FECOFUN conducted advocacy between 2018 and 2019 that led to several key reforms under the Forest Act 2019, including:
- Legal recognition of agroforestry practices within community forests
- Permission for CFUGs to establish and register forest-based enterprises such as non-timber forest product processing, timber enterprises and eco-tourism within their areas
- Simplified procedures for registering an enterprise with the division forest office, and
- Strengthened benefit-sharing mechanisms, enabling CFUGs to retain and reinvest income generated from forest enterprises.
To help make this happen, FFF annual grants from 2018 onwards included support for advocacy. Through strategic collaboration, FECOFUN and FFF developed a context-responsive advocacy strategy and action plans, resulting in improved prioritisation of CFUG agendas and enhanced mobilisation of technical and financial resources. This includes redefining the role of CFUGs in changing socioeconomic and political contexts in Nepal.
FFF support helped fund consultative evidence-gathering meetings at local levels as well as training to strengthen FECOFUN’s internal governance, positioning and negotiation skills. FECOFUN leaders and members were then supported to engage in policy dialogues at local, provincial and federal levels to present CFUG concerns and recommendations.
The funding ensured that women, young people and Indigenous Peoples were given platforms to speak as custodians of community forest values with national policymakers, particularly the Ministry of Forests and Environment.
FFF also supported FECOFUN to draft position papers for the Forest Act with relevant ministries and authorities, while media campaigns that included radio programmes, news articles and interviews helped raise awareness and create national pressure.
Significance of impact
The impact was significant because enterprise registration became possible for the first time for 16 million people, opening new income and employment pathways, especially for women, young people and Indigenous Peoples.
CFUGs are now seen as an economic entity, and not just for forest conservation, incorporating high-value species production and processing within community forests.
Conclusion
FFF support to FECOFUN has enabled them to shape the Forest Act in a way that will improve income generation opportunities for 16 million people, incentivise fruit tree planting and agroforest restoration in community forest areas, and minimise human-wildlife conflicts because of the availability of forest food.
Further reading
Forest and Farm Facility annual report 2024, Forest and Farm Facility (2025)
Insight: Agroforestry entrepreneurship by smallholder farmers – regreening Nepal, Duncan Macqueen (2025)
Enhancing internal governance within a national federation of community forestry users in Nepal. Case study on Federation of Community Forestry Users Nepal (FECOFUN), Himalaya Raj Ghimire (2024), project report
Article: Nominating your outstanding women in development (2020)