Report on forest carbon stock in community forests in three watersheds
Asia Network for Sustainable Agriculture and Bioresources (ANSAB), International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), and Federation of Community Forest Users’ Nepal (FECOFUN) are jointly implementing the project “Design and setting up of a governance and payment system for Nepal’s Community Forest Management under Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD)” in 104 community forests of three watersheds of Nepal, namely; Kayarkhola of Chitwan district, Charnawati of Dolakha district and Ludhikhola of Gorkha district. The project is in operation since July 2009 with financial support of Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD). The watersheds cover an area of 27,000 ha where community forest area alone stands at about 10,266 ha. Estimating the current level of forest carbon stock in project sites is essential to generate baseline information so as to see the carbon stock change over the period whereby demonstrating the REDD incentive distribution and practice of governance process in community forest management system. Hence, this report primarily presents the information of current status of forest carbon stock in all three project watersheds.