17-23 June 2016 #813

Blame game in forestry

Pitamber Sigdel in Annapurna Post, 15 June

Kunda Dixit

Nepal’s biggest forestry project — funded by the governments of Finland, Switzerland and the UK — is ending next month, and neither the government nor the donors wants to renew it.

The Multi-Stakeholder Forestry Program (MSFP) was launched in 2012 for 10 years. But during the first four-year phase ending in mid-July, the discord between the government and the donors grew so severe that the Rs 16 billion project has been terminated midway.

This week, Forest Minister Agni Sapkota for the first time told journalists that the government did not want to extend the MSFP because the donors made the release of additional funds contingent upon the establishment of the National Forest Entity, a mechanism aimed at ensuring transparency.

But Sapkota alleged that the donors had an ulterior motive. “By forming this entity, the donors would be able to take back 83 per cent of the funding for their respective countries,” he said.

On the other hand, the donors say they pulled out of the MSFP because the government failed to curb irregularities. They also cite Nepal’s inefficient bureaucracy and the lack of positive results in the first phase as the reasons for halting the MSFP.

But when Swiss Ambassador to Nepal Urs Herren and top authorities from the UK met the Forest Minister recently, they put it more diplomatically: they withdrew funding for the MSFP because their areas of priority have changed.