Women in Nepal's remote village development communities do both housework and farm labour. Credit: Naresh Newar/IPS

By Naresh Newar
JHIRUBAS, Nepal, Jul 4 2013 (IPS)

Over 40 percent of Nepal is covered in thick forest, but most of it has been degraded. Rural communities that have traditionally relied on the forests for survival now live in abject poverty, struggling to secure the food necessary for survival. Most men have migrated to the Gulf in search of employment.

A Leasehold Forestry and Livestock Programme (LFLP) launched by the government in 2005, with assistance from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), is achieving the twin goals of restoring wasted forest land and providing rural communities with enough income to purchase food during the nine months of the year when farming on the rocky mountain slopes of Nepal bears no fruits.

And slowly but surely, men are trickling back into their communities to help women with the backbreaking work of harvesting broom grass for sale, fodder and fuel.

Leasehold Forestry Brings a New Lease on Life from IPS Inter Press Service on Vimeo.

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