Nepal's community forestry development program is considered to be succssful in forest management. In fact, community forestry has become much more tha a means of natural resource management over the years. There are increasing examples of its potential also as a campaign for social transformation.
Across the country, approximately 1.22 million hectares of state manged forest land have been formally handed over 14,400 Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs) that benefits to 1.65 million households involving more than 8 million population of Nepal (DoF, 2008). However, a number of research reports and articles provide evidence that among communities and households, women Dalits' poor people and marginalized Janajatis, have had relatively less access to community forest benefits as compared to others. In the process, women have been particularly marginalized: across the board, their issues reach decisin-making levels, responses tend to be no more than formalities. This is not surprising in a society characterized by patriarchal values and imbalanced power relations. Women are additionally handicapped in their efforts as a result of insufficient information access, poor knowledge about ongoing development actibities and weak networking and coalition building for advocacy purposes.
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