News Room 
Association of Family Forest Owners Nepal (AFFON) that has been playing an effective role towards eliminating policy hurdle as well as economic transformation of the forest farmers through sustainable management of the family forest, organized altogether five interaction workshops, four at district levels and one at national level. Central AFFON coordinated with the respective AFFON district chapters and organized the interaction workshops at Kailali, Banke, Dang and Rautahat on 2016, November 29, November 30, December 1 and December 2 respectively under the theme Climate Policies and Role of Family Forestry in Green Jobs. The national level sharing workshop was organised at Kathmandu on December 14. The workshops not only increased the awareness among the participants on climate policies but the platform was well used to discuss on issues of family forest farmers as well as creating positive feelings among the stakeholders The program at both local and national level was attended by family forest farmers, government officials, representatives from Natural Resource Managing group/networks, Parliamentary members and media.
Program Proceeding
Upon the completion of the four district level workshops, National sharing workshop was organized at Kathmandu on 14 December 2016. The program was divided into four different sessions : Opening /Introduction session, Technical session, Open discussion session and the Closing Session.
Mr. Pitambar Sigdel, General Secretary, AFFON moderated the event. Mr. Jog Raj Giri, Chairperson AFFON, chaired the program. Mr. Parbat Gurung, Parliamentarian member of the Environment Protection Committee was the Chief Guest to the program. The stage was set with all the dignitaries including Dr. Ganga Ram Dahal, International Consultant FAO, Mr. Resham Bahadur Dangi, Chief of Foreign Aid Division Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation, Dr. Sindhu Prasad Dhungana, Joint Secretary and Chief of REDD Implementation Center, Mr. Kapil Adhikari from FENFIT, Ms. Bina Shrestha COFSUN, Mr. Bishnu Parsad Gyawali, Private Forestry Network among others taking their seats. Upon setting of the stage, Ms. Indira Ghimire, Vice Chair AFFON, welcomed all the participants and guests through a welcome speech.
During the technical session, all together five presentations were made. Mr. Jog Raj Giri, Chairperson AFFON presented briefly on Overview of AFFON. Ms Barsha Parajuli, National Program Coordinator AFFON shared of the issues of issues of the forest farmers from the districts. Dr. Ganga Dahal,International Consultant FAO presented on the tenure systems that are in practice in different Asian countries. He even talked of the tenureship issues in context of Climate Change. Mr. Resham Bahadur Dangi, Chief of Foreign Aid Division Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation, discussed on the Possibilities of Family Forestry.
Dr. Sindhu Prasad Dhungana, Joint Secretary and Chief of REDD Implementation Center made his presentation on REDD plus and family forestry. During his presentation, Dr. Shindhu made it clear on what REDD is and what it does. He even spoke on how REDD intends to reduce carbon emission (reducing deforestation and forest degradation, forest conservation, sustainable forest management and enhancement of carbon sequestration) and where we are in terms of REDD process. Following the technical session, the program continued with Open discussion. Participants actively participated in the discussion that were centered in making family forest farmers aware and strengthen.
Following the open discussion plenary session, Chief Guest Honorable Mr. Parbat Gurung, Environment Protection Committee, during his speech gave his well wishes to AFFON. He even highlighted that new policies and laws are coming up that are to give rights to the private forestry and Private forests will have greater roles to conserve as well as reduce dependency on national & community forests that will ultimately lower encroachment of the National forests. The program ended with the vote of thanks and closing remarks by the program Chair, Mr. Jog Raj Giri.
Major issues of family forest farmers collected from districts