Announcement»

BOKU/RRN are implementing a research project entitled "Identification of Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Community Forest Management" in Makawanpur and Chitawan districts, Nepal through the close collaboration with stakeholders from forest officials from the Department of Forestry (DoF), Federation of Community Forestry Users, Nepal (FECOFUN), Natural and Organization Resource Management Services (NORMS), the Institute of Forestry (IoF) and project managers from the Department of Forest and Soil Sciences, (DWB, Austria) and one of the leading NGO's of Nepal, RRN, Nepal. The overall goal of this study is to identify criteria and indicators (C&I) for analyzing and evaluating community forests managed by forest user groups from a sustainable natural resource management perspective and to test the C&I set in regional case studies. A major purpose of this project is to facilitate a process, which allows Community Forestry's in Nepal to identify their performance in relation to common accepted international Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) standards. This study is, intended to develop C&I for evaluating sustainable forest management by participating diverse groups of stakeholders at district as well as forest management unit level, to increase the voice of the local people and to confirm the effectiveness and quality of the FUG in Nepal.

The uses of C&I for evaluating sustainable forest management practices at the district scale or the scale of Community Forests in Nepal are at present scare. Therefore, this project contributes to develop the methodology of C&I and clarify the process for practical implementation in case studies for testing indicator and verifiers (normative framework of sustainable forest management). Likewise, a C&I set can serve as a framework for setting a vision, goals, monitoring and evaluating for sustainable forest management and national forest programmes, certification, assisting strategic planning and communicating on progress made to policy makers, forests officials, and donor agencies and among other users.

Field Research Grants

The purpose of this grant is to provide partial support of B.Sc. forestry from Institute of forestry, Hetauda and master's research in other different fields for graduate students. BOKU/RRN supports research grants with a substantial field component with practical exploration implications.

Awards are intended to fund specific thesis research expenses.

• Grants will be provided only to officially registered and full time graduate students enrolled in a B.Sc in forestry/degree programme in the field of social and natural resource management.
  
• A summary description of the planned research must be provided. This proposal should describe the research questions to be addressed, the methods to be used, and the data or materials to be analyzed, a list of relevant references or bibliography and full proposal as approved by respective Department Head/Academic Supervisor.
  
• RRN will evaluate the proposal on the merits of the research, as provided by the applicant, relevance of the research to RRN's fields of interest, and the suitability of the budget request.
  
• Research proposals require approval from the designated campus/thesis supervisor/or advisory committee. The students must have an approval letter for undertaking a research study from their major thesis advisor or the head of the department concerned.
  
• Research grants are not awarded for salary to the applicant or for the actual preparation of thesis copy such as typing, charts or photos.
  
• The total amount of NRs. 25,000.00 for B.Sc. forestry and Masters Degree will be provided for field research grants.
  
• RRN will take an officially supervisory/ advisory role in relation to the thesis, in conjunction with the academic supervisors.

Conditions:

• The students shall complete the academic degree within the period specified by their department
  
• The students shall receive the grants on instalment basis as endorsed by the signing parties. An advance payment of NRs. 15,000 (60% of total field grants) shall be made after signing the contract and upon written request from the student.
  
• The students' thesis advisory committee shall have a relevant representative from RRN to contribute to the research study.
  
• The outcome of the students' research study may be published partially or fully by RRN, with or without the researchers' consent, with an acknowledgement to the authors.
  

The research proposal must be submitted by 15 July, 2007.

Contact persons

Dr. Surya Laxmi Maskey<surya@rrn.org.np>
or
Mr. Chiranjeewee Khadka<chiranjeewee@rrn.org.np>

Rural Reconstruction Nepal (RRN)
Post Box 8130 Lazimpat Kathmandu, Nepal
Phone: 977-1-4415418, 4422153,