Nepal: Building Grassroots Capacity for REDD+

Community forestry, well-established in large parts of Nepal, forms a solid basis for sharing information about forest projects. Thanks to this system, grassroots stakeholders already have a solid grasp of concepts required for forest management and a high interest in REDD+ program. This context allowed for rapid implementation of the grassroots project in Nepal.

REDD+ capacity development in Nepal was founded on the initial needs assessment which showed that it is of high priority to identify, document, and share experiences among grassroots stakeholders, showcasing important aspects of REDD+. A number of capacity building materials has been developed; revised edition of REDD+ training manuals, following a consortium approach. These manuals have been used as example for other project countries and contextualized in their languages. Other communication products such as radio programs, handouts, posters, booklets, case studies and articles are also developed and distributed widely. Cascade approach of delivering training has proved very effective in order to reach a large number of audiences in a most economical way. Local and cultural tool, such as the street show was used to communicate a basic concept of climate change to forest dependent villagers. Additionally, using social inclusion and gender equity approach, the project has involce indigenous peoples, dalits, and other minority communities in REDD+ training and capacity building activities. Having reached to large number of stakeholders, the project is now focusing on documenting key issues and concerns of grassroots stakeholders and sharing them with policy makers and other key stakeholders through a series of grassroots level consultation workshops and policy dialogues at various levels.

The project has also closely networked with the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility to ensure that capacity-building materials and their design respond to the needs identified through national REDD+ readiness programs. We also work with the National REDD+ Forestry and Climate Change Cell to align the project activities with national policies and programs for REDD+.