Self-governance for a sustainable natural resource management:
a case study of the Sundari Community Forest User Group

Abstract: The dilemma of how to manage common-pool resources to become both sustainable
and contribute to the livelihood of individuals, for whom the resource is a
necessity, has been widely discussed in academia. The experience of state and
private intervention indicated that neither has been particular successful,
and Nepal was one of the first countries in Asia to realise the limitations
of unilaterally managing public lands through government agencies, and
started a process to hand over the control of national forest to rural
self-governing communities.

The concept of community forest management emerged almost twenty-five years
ago, and has since then addressed the linkage between forestry, rural people
and environmental sustainability. Rural people in Nepal still has high levels
of dependence on forest products and well-anchored traditions of self
sufficiency and community forestry has proved to be successful in addressing
the livelihood needs of rural people and keep the forests in a sustainable
way.

The purpose of this study is to explore how poor rural people can craft and
sustain institutional arrangements for the management of a communal resource
to enhance their livelihood. To achieve this purpose, I conducted a case
study of the Sundari Community Forest User Group (CFUG) in the Nawalparasi
district, in southern Nepal. I investigated to what extent the Sundari CFUG
has succeeded to establish an institutional framework for sustainable use of
the forest held in common

My main findings indicate that Sundari CFUG fulfils a large share of what
characterise long enduring self-governing common-pool resource systems.
However, despite the ambitiously crafted institutional arrangement there are
discrepancies between official regulations and how these are put into
practice, an aspect that may aggravate future development of the system.