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Chitwan: Community Forestry and Decentralized Conservation

Chitwan: Community Forestry and Decentralized Conservation

Overview

Nepal provides a powerful example of decentralized conservation through Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs). Chitwan’s buffer-zone systems illustrate how commons governance can scale nationally while integrating tourism economies and benefit-sharing mechanisms.

This seminar focuses on:

  • Commons governance in practice
  • Decentralization and local autonomy
  • Benefit-sharing models
  • Tourism and conservation economics
  • Institutional resilience

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Participants will:

  • Apply Ostrom’s design principles to CFUG systems
  • Evaluate decentralization effectiveness
  • Analyze benefit-sharing and equity structures
  • Map conservation–tourism interfaces
  • Produce a commons governance evaluation memo
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IDEAL DISCIPLINES

Environmental Governance

Political Ecology

Development Studies

Forestry

Sustainability

Anthropology

Public Policy

Environmental Economics

Key Locations

Kathmandu
Chitwan corridor

Itinerary Table

Day Location Activities Learning Objectives
1
 Kathmandu Arrival; orientation seminar Program readiness
2
 Kathmandu Seminar: Commons governance & decentralization Theoretical grounding
3
 Kathmandu CFUG institutional briefing Institutional literacy
4
 Transit to Chitwan Buffer-zone governance overview Landscape systems
5
 Chitwan Ethical wildlife observation Field methods
6
 Community interface CFUG mapping (permissions-based) Commons analysis
7
 Chitwan Benefit-sharing workshop Institutional incentives
8
 Chitwan Tourism economy analysis Conservation finance
9
 Chitwan Adaptive governance seminar Resilience application
10
 Kathmandu Systems synthesis lab Translate field evidence
11
 Kathmandu Memo drafting studio Structured argumentation
12
 Kathmandu Peer review clinic Refine analysis
13
 Departure Closing seminar Integrate insights