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Through years of continuous long-term policy advocacy, the Association of Family Forest Owners, Nepal (AFFON) has secured ground breaking milestones to safeguard and advance the rights of smallholder family forest farmers across Nepal. A defining turning point in this journey has been the successful integration of smallholder farmers into official government carbon finance initiatives managed by the REDD Implementation Centre. Historically, carbon finance mechanisms were predominantly structured around large scale public community forestry models, often leaving individual small-scale landholders on the periphery of global climate markets. Recognizing this gap, sustained advocacy helped established a crucial precedent: acknowledging family forests as vital carbon sinks capable of generating verified emission reductions and securing fair compensation for their environmental stewardship.
Initial implementation of these carbon credit programs began in the Terai Arc Landscape (TAL), where smallholder family forest farmers first became eligible to receive carbon finance services through the Government of Nepal’s REDD Implementation Center. Expanding upon this initial success, the program has now widened its reach to encompass smallholder family forest farmers operating within the Bagmati, Lumbini, and Gandaki Provinces under the LEAF Coalition mechanism. Alongside this geographical expansion, significant policy revisions have been made to optimize direct financial benefits for local communities. While benefits were originally intended to be distributed exclusively as in-kind goods or non-monetary assistance, official policy has now shifted to provide direct cash payments to participating family forest farmers.
Furthermore, access barriers regarding land size requirements have been dramatically lowered to ensure broader inclusivity. Under the original framework, participation was strictly limited to registered family forest farmers holding at least 0.5 hectares (or equivalent to 10 Ropani or 15 Kattha) of forested land. Addressing the reality that many smallholders manage smaller parcels, the government’s official guidelines now explicitly allow farmers with less than 0.5 hectares of forest to participate in the carbon credit process. To fulfill this requirement, small landholders residing within the same landscape can aggregate their holdings into cooperative groups, allowing them to collectively meet program criteria and share in the financial returns.
To ensure long-term sustainability and equitable participation, the Government of Nepal has formally committed to supporting these grassroots communities through targeted capacity-building initiatives. The government plans to actively involve family forest farmers in comprehensive awareness campaigns, technical training workshops, and educational programs designed to demystify the complex carbon accounting and verification processes.
In conclusion, the formal inclusion of smallholder family forest farmers in Nepal’s national carbon finance activities represents a major triumph for local livelihoods and sustainable resource management. By transitioning from in-kind benefits to direct cash incentives, lowering land-threshold barriers through group aggregation, and investing in family forest farmer’s capacity building, Nepal has set a powerful example of inclusive climate action that directly empowers the smallholders who actively protect its forest landscapes.