Land, Forest and Indigenous Peoples' Rights in Relation to Climate Change and REDD (Policy and Program Analysis)

Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN), together with the IWGIA, AIPP, TEBTEBBA and FPP, has been conducting programs on Climate Change- REDD Partnership Program. As part of this program, a research study has already been carried out with detailed reviews and analysis of the government laws, policies, programs and indigenous peoples’ rights on land and forest.

Following the research, the report which includes reviews and analysis of existing government policies and programs related to indigenous peoples and their rights on land and forests are set to be published in form of a book, which indeed is my great pleasure. The research has vividly analyzed and reviewed on how the indigenous peoples gradually lost their rights over their ancestral land and forest due to the discriminatory and impractical policies and programs introduced by the governments in the Nepal.

The Nepalese forest, remarkably thick in the past, is in process of rapid deforestation and forest degradation as the government policies gave no recognition to the customary laws, practices, traditional knowledge, skills and know-how of the indigenous peoples on sustainable land and forest management.