The use and usefulness of inventory-based management planning to forest management: Evidence from community forestry in Nepal

• Forest inventories underlying community forestry management plans are sub-standard.
• Management plans are not used in practical forest management by community-level managers.
• Community-level managers appear knowledgeable about forest condition.
• We question the usefulness of inventory-based management planning in community forestry.

This paper examines the use and usefulness of inventory-based management planning to practical forest management in processes of community forestry in Nepal. The paper is based on case studies in four Community-Forestry User Groups (CFUG) in the mid-Hills of Nepal and draws upon semi-structured interviews, participatory rural appraisal exercises and analyses of aerial photographs. First, we find that the operational plans supposed to guide community-level management are based on sub-standard forest inventories, which limits their potential role in practical forest management. Second, we find that community-level managers do not rely on the operational plans in their practical forest management. Finally, we find that community-level forest managers in these four cases have managed to conserve their community forests over time and appear knowledgeable about the developments in the condition of their forests in the sense that their impressions of past and current forest condition are mirrored in what we can observe from analysis of change in forest condition based on aerial photographs. Based on these results we question the usefulness of inventory-based management planning in the context of community forestry.