Gap analysis workshop
ANSAB organized two days district level “Gap Analysis Workshop” on the basis of FSC standards for sustainable forest management certification for incorporating them into the management plan and Constitution of the community forest user groups (CFUGs) on August 26-27, 2014. The main objective of the workshop was to share the FSC standards of the Sustainable forest management (Version-5) to the local stakeholders, to analyze the gaps on existing forest management plan (FMP) and constitution of CFUGs and Leasehold forest user groups (LFUGs) in accordance with the principles, criteria and indicators. There were total of 19 participants representing District Forest Office (DFO), District Soil and Water Conservation Office, district and central FECOFUN, Gaurishankar Conservation Area, LRPs/representatives of certified CFUG and technical team of ANSAB.
ANSAB’s Senior Program Officer-Mr. Shambhu Charmakar, Research Officer-Dr. Nabin Raj Joshi, and Assistant Forest Officer-Mr. Ram Kumar Bhandari of Dolakha district facilitated the workshop. Review, group work, presentation and discussion were the major methods used to analyze the gap on FMP and constitution regarding to FSC standard. First half of day first was focused to familiarize with the FSC standard, group formation and division of responsibility and group was initiated on second half. Similarly, the day second was focused on group work for first half and presentation and discussions on the second half. The presentation and discussion session was chaired by Mr. Rabindra Maharjan, DFO, Dolakha. Based on the group work and discussion, the gaps on FMP and constitution were identified and Mr. Rabindra Maharjan, district forest officer, Dolakha closed the session appreciating the hard work of participants and providing the feedback to the group work. In addition, Mr. Maharjan highlighted importance of forest certification and present situation in the world and appreciated the work of ANSAB. Similarly, he expressed his commitment to support to incorporate the identified gaps on FMP and constitution from DFO side.
Finally, the workshop was successful to make internalized on the FSC sustainable forest management standard-International Generic Indicators (IGIs)-V5 among participants; identify the gaps on FMP and constitution based on standards, and to provide guidance for developing the template of FMP and constitution based on FSC standard-IGIs V5.