| Community forestry program was initiated in 1978 to address the issue of deforestation and self-sufficiency in forest products. There are no commonly agreed upon indicators to measure the success of this program. The study investigates the local perspective on indicators to evaluate community forestry programs in the Kaksi district of Nepal. A one-day workshop was organized at the institute of Forestry, Nepal to develop a set of agreed upon indicators to measure the success of the community forestry program. The workshop produced 17 agreed upon indicators. An interview schedule was developed to assess the level of agreement of forest user group members on these indicators. 487 members of the forest user group members in Kaksi district were interviewed. Data was gathered from the 50 community forests. A separate check list was developed to solicit information on the status of each community forests. Factors analysis was performed to identify the clusters of the statements that share variations. Based on the factor analysis, five factors: forest condition, forest management, forest ecology, forest products use, and water availability are recommended to use as indicators to study the success of a community forestry program.; Findings showed that the forest users perceived the improvement of forest condition, forest management, forest ecology, forest products use, and water availability after the implementation of community forestry program. The higher caste people perceived the success of the community forestry program more positively than those belonging to other castes. The people who collect forest products from the community forests tend to perceive the community forestry program more positively than those who did not.; Overall the community forests in the Kaski district is improving in terms of natural regeneration, tree canopy and tree shape. No significant relationship was found between community forests' characteristics such as community type, number of user households, and incidence of forest fire and community forests' status such as regeneration, tree shape and crown cover. However, a strong relationship was observed between crown cover and FUGs' income size. The average diameter of community forests indicates the availability of younger trees in the forests. Similarly, the average number of saplings in the forests indicates that the management practices, especially silvicultural operation is lacking in the forest, which is an essential activity of forest management. |
