Community forestry and sustainable livelihoods: the Nepal-UK community forestry project

Can the livelihoods approach refocus existing projects to better address poverty elimination? How difficult is it for already established projects to realign themselves with the Sustainable Livelihoods (SL) framework? Can our understanding of the complexities of theSL approach be 'improved' by linking them with other frameworks? Hugh Gibbon, in a report for DFID, briefly examines the change in priority of the Nepal-UK Community Forestry Project (NUKCFP) from a community forestry project focusing on natural resources to one better addressing the marginalisation of the poor. The paper discusses how this experience contributes to DFID's understanding of the application of the sustainable rural livelihoods framework.

Gibson's analysis finds that, in realigning theNUKCFP:

• The SL framework was very useful in understanding context, offering a better understanding of how community forestry relates to poverty and its potential for improving livelihoods and wellbeing.
• The NUKCFP had a problem in understanding how its 'project' activities, which were focused on providing poor forest users with opportunities to improve their access to benefit flows, could be included in the SL framework, suggesting a need for the framework to be broken down into more easily implementable activities.
• NUKCFP used another framework adapted from 'Striking a Balance' by Alan Fowler (1997, Earthscan), to link its project activities into the transforming structures and processes (or policy, institutions and processes), influence and access part of the SL framework.
• The 'Fowler' framework has allowed NUKCFP to focus on individual and institutional learning as the entry point for change in the SL framework.
• The practical application of the Fowler framework has in turn helped the Project explain its focus on providing a learning and empowering environment for stakeholders.
• The analysis has also helped to clarify Project staff roles and the values underlying the roles, as well as highlighting the importance and role of partnerships and the need to base them on values.
• Attention has been focused on gaps and therefore areas needing attention in the future (e.g. increased linkage between the macro and micro levels, through advocacy, policy analysis, and strengthening civil society's role in policy dialogue). There is also a need for greater attention to leadership and decision - making processes in all stakeholder organisations.